Chapter 1 The Castilian inheritance and the Mediterranean Empire (1365-1378)
First Book: The House of Barcelona (1361-1482)
First Part: Pedro V of Aragon (1361-1404)
Prelude: New kings, new hopes.
After being close to death in late March, 1350, during the siege of Gibraltar, King Alfonso XI of Castille emerged from his experience as a new man. He had laid in his bed seriously ill and when, after three painful days, he recovered his health on March 27, which was Good Friday, he was determined to led a new life. Thus, he put an end to his scandalous relationship with his mistress, Leonor de Guzmán (1310-1354), who had borne him ten children. Then, he called his son and heir, Pedro, back to his court. Pedro, who was 16 years old, had been kept away when his father had refused to have any contact with her wife, Maria of Portugal (1313-1357), as the king was then infatuated with Leonor. Thus, the heir returned to the court, to be with his father and his half-brothers and to be educated in the kingly matters for the next ten years, until Alfonso XI died on October 30, 1360.
Meanwhile, in Aragon, King Pedro IV was killed by a bout of the Black Death, a few weeks later (January 14, 1361). His son Pedro (1), who was 14 years old then, became Pedro V of Aragon. The beginning of his kingship was darkened by the death of Jaime IV of Majorca as he tried to escape from his prison. In 1344 Pedro IV had declared his brother-in-law, Jaime III of Majorca (the father of Jaime IV), a disobedient vassal and occupied his kingdom (the Balearic Islands, Roussillon and Cerdanya) in May. James III was killed in battle when he attempted to reconquer his lands in 1349 and Jaime IV had been kept prisoner by his uncle, Peter IV, since then. Thus the kingdom of Majorca was formally re-annexed by Aragon after Jaime's death.
On June 24, 1371, Pedro V married the 14-year-old Joanne, daughter of of Charles V of France, following the efforts of his late father to avoid a war with Castille by having powerful allies.
Chapter 1: The Castilian inheritance and the Mediterranean Empire. (1365-1378)
To reinforce his own authority in Aragon, in 1365 Pedro V named his cousin Pedro, count of Urgell (1340 - 1408), as the new procurator general. It was a dangerous move, as the king had no male son, then, and this position was, by tradition, reserved for the second in line to the Aragonese throne. However, when Joanne gave birth to their first male son, Juan, Prince of Girona (b. May 28, 1373), Pedro V kept his namesake as the procurator general and he made his uncle Pedro de Aragón (1305 – 1381), Count of Ribagorza, Empúries and Prades the Warden of the Valencian border with Castille. His intention was to reinforce the defence of the realm and, as the monarch had to take care of so many questions of great importance, the protection of the kingdom had to be guaranteed by all means; thus the nomination of Urgell, who was soon to prove that the king was right when he named him procurator general when Marianus IV, the guidice -Judge (king)- of Arborea, in the island of Sardinia rebelled again that same year.
In 1297 Pope Boniface VIII, to settle the dispute between the Angevins and Aragonese over the Kingdom of Sicily (which had triggered the popular movement known as the Sicilian Vespers), formed the Regnum Sardiniae et Corsicae for James II the Just, King of Aragon. The conquest of Sardinia by the Aragonese Crown did not begin until June 1323. By then, the island was under the influence of Pisa, Genoa and the Doria and Malaspina families, as well as the Judicate of Arborea, the only surviving judicial state entity. The Arborean judge Hugh II of Arborea became a vassal of Jaime II of Aragon in exchange for the maintenance of the dynastic rights over his Judicate, with the hope to expand his control over the whole of Sardinia, as lieutenant of the distant king, residing in Barcelona. After defeating their enemies by the summer of 1353, Marianus IV felt threatened by the Aragonese claims of sovereignty and by the consolidation of their power in the island. Thus, in September, he rebelled against Aragon. In November 1354, Marianus IV forced Peter IV of Aragon to recognize the autonomy of his Judicate.
Thus, when Marianus IV invaded the Aragonese territories in the island (1365), Pedro V decided to settle the issue for once and all and ordered his cousin to defeat the rebel forces. By the Spring 1366, Marianus had conquered various villages and castles and the mining town of Villa di Chiesa, which rebelled against the Aragonese, and he built a fortified camp near Selargius to block supplies to Cagliari . In June 1367 an Aragonese army led by Pedro of Urgell and reinforced by Bertrand du Gluescin and the "free companies", arrived at Cagliari and marched toward the Judicial capital, Oristano. Marianus would achieve a pyrrhic victory near Sant'Anna, but, by the next year, Urgell and du Gluescin had been able to recapture Orsillo. Later that year, the tide turned to Aragon when the fleet of the Republic of Genoa, in support of Marianus, attacked the port of Cagliari but was defeated and decimated by the Catalan fleet.
Marianus IV launched a great offensive in 1368. He conquered the castles of Fava, Pontes, Bonvehì and Pedres, leaving only Alghero and Longosardo to their adversaries. He then entered Villa di Chiesa and Sanluri. There, in the pains of Sanluri met the two armies (June 30, 1368). Thanks to the enveloping tactics of du Guesclin, the Aragonese army, less numerous though much better trained, managed to divide the Arborean army, including many Genoese crossbowmen, into two parts which were then destroyed separately. The right battle was broken into two part, the first was being chased to Sanluri and eventually was routed there, and the other one followed Marianus to take refuge in the castle of Monreale, in the nearby village of Sardara, The left battle was slaughtered in a plain which has taken the name of s'occidroxiu ("the slaughterhouse") ever since. Four days later, Villa di Chiesa surrendered to Urgell, which dealt a crippling blow to Arborea. Marianus fled to France to seek aid, leaving his son Hugo to defend Oristano. Hugo was able to withstand the enemy siege and luck seemed to be on his side when France and England clashed again in 1369 and Du Guesclin was recalled to France.
However, Hugo never obtained the reinforcements that his father had promised him. As soon as he arrived in France, he was arrested by order of Charles V of France, who thus honoured his alliance with Aragon. In spite of this, the Arboreans defended themselves strenuously and seven months passed before Pedro Torrelles conquered the castles of Monreale, Marmilla and Gioiosa Guardia. In January 1370 Oristano finally surrendered. All the historical Arborea was forfeited and Marianus exiled for life with some of his most hot-headed followers to Genoa. His son Hugo was given Campidano de Cabras, Milis and Simaxis along with the title of Marquis of Oristano. In 1372 Marianus would try to rise again the islands in rebellion with the support of the Dorias. Only Sassari rose in arms, but Pedro Martínez de Luna, the captain general and lieutenant of Pedro V, defeated them on May 5, 1372 in El Alghero. After his father died a few months later (August 7), and convinced that he could not improve the situation, Hugo surrendered to Aragon, and on August 17, what remained of the old Judicate of Arborea was sold to Aragon for 100,000 gold florins.
The unexpected death of Pedro I of Castille (March 14, 1370) made Pedro V to become very active at the Castilian court, as Pedro's successor, Alfonso XII (1359-1414), became king at the age of 11 and was promised to Pedro's sister, Leonor (1358-1382). During Alfonso's minority, a council of Regents was set up to govern Castille. It was made up by three of his uncles: Enrique, Count of Trastámara, and Sancho, Count of Albuquerque, half-brothers of his father, and from his mother's side, Diego García de Padilla, Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava; finally, Pedro V of Aragón was included, too, as he was the father-in-law of the king. Pedro would constantly clash with Pedro clashing with Enrique de Trastámara for the dominant role in the council. However, when Alfonso XII came of age in 1378 and was crowned, both Pedro and Enrique lost most of their power at court as the king restored to power the highly competent advisors of his father and also chose to favour the advice of the "Infantillos" (2), his personal advisors, over that of his uncles. The "Infantillos" was a mocking name to refer to those advisors, who were neither princes nor civil servants; their position was simply bases on being very close friends of the king.
(1) Pedro IV's fourth stillborn son with his first wife, María de Navarra, now gets the chance to live a full life.
(2) Infantillos = little princes.
First Part: Pedro V of Aragon (1361-1404)
Prelude: New kings, new hopes.
After being close to death in late March, 1350, during the siege of Gibraltar, King Alfonso XI of Castille emerged from his experience as a new man. He had laid in his bed seriously ill and when, after three painful days, he recovered his health on March 27, which was Good Friday, he was determined to led a new life. Thus, he put an end to his scandalous relationship with his mistress, Leonor de Guzmán (1310-1354), who had borne him ten children. Then, he called his son and heir, Pedro, back to his court. Pedro, who was 16 years old, had been kept away when his father had refused to have any contact with her wife, Maria of Portugal (1313-1357), as the king was then infatuated with Leonor. Thus, the heir returned to the court, to be with his father and his half-brothers and to be educated in the kingly matters for the next ten years, until Alfonso XI died on October 30, 1360.
Meanwhile, in Aragon, King Pedro IV was killed by a bout of the Black Death, a few weeks later (January 14, 1361). His son Pedro (1), who was 14 years old then, became Pedro V of Aragon. The beginning of his kingship was darkened by the death of Jaime IV of Majorca as he tried to escape from his prison. In 1344 Pedro IV had declared his brother-in-law, Jaime III of Majorca (the father of Jaime IV), a disobedient vassal and occupied his kingdom (the Balearic Islands, Roussillon and Cerdanya) in May. James III was killed in battle when he attempted to reconquer his lands in 1349 and Jaime IV had been kept prisoner by his uncle, Peter IV, since then. Thus the kingdom of Majorca was formally re-annexed by Aragon after Jaime's death.
On June 24, 1371, Pedro V married the 14-year-old Joanne, daughter of of Charles V of France, following the efforts of his late father to avoid a war with Castille by having powerful allies.
Chapter 1: The Castilian inheritance and the Mediterranean Empire. (1365-1378)
To reinforce his own authority in Aragon, in 1365 Pedro V named his cousin Pedro, count of Urgell (1340 - 1408), as the new procurator general. It was a dangerous move, as the king had no male son, then, and this position was, by tradition, reserved for the second in line to the Aragonese throne. However, when Joanne gave birth to their first male son, Juan, Prince of Girona (b. May 28, 1373), Pedro V kept his namesake as the procurator general and he made his uncle Pedro de Aragón (1305 – 1381), Count of Ribagorza, Empúries and Prades the Warden of the Valencian border with Castille. His intention was to reinforce the defence of the realm and, as the monarch had to take care of so many questions of great importance, the protection of the kingdom had to be guaranteed by all means; thus the nomination of Urgell, who was soon to prove that the king was right when he named him procurator general when Marianus IV, the guidice -Judge (king)- of Arborea, in the island of Sardinia rebelled again that same year.
In 1297 Pope Boniface VIII, to settle the dispute between the Angevins and Aragonese over the Kingdom of Sicily (which had triggered the popular movement known as the Sicilian Vespers), formed the Regnum Sardiniae et Corsicae for James II the Just, King of Aragon. The conquest of Sardinia by the Aragonese Crown did not begin until June 1323. By then, the island was under the influence of Pisa, Genoa and the Doria and Malaspina families, as well as the Judicate of Arborea, the only surviving judicial state entity. The Arborean judge Hugh II of Arborea became a vassal of Jaime II of Aragon in exchange for the maintenance of the dynastic rights over his Judicate, with the hope to expand his control over the whole of Sardinia, as lieutenant of the distant king, residing in Barcelona. After defeating their enemies by the summer of 1353, Marianus IV felt threatened by the Aragonese claims of sovereignty and by the consolidation of their power in the island. Thus, in September, he rebelled against Aragon. In November 1354, Marianus IV forced Peter IV of Aragon to recognize the autonomy of his Judicate.
Thus, when Marianus IV invaded the Aragonese territories in the island (1365), Pedro V decided to settle the issue for once and all and ordered his cousin to defeat the rebel forces. By the Spring 1366, Marianus had conquered various villages and castles and the mining town of Villa di Chiesa, which rebelled against the Aragonese, and he built a fortified camp near Selargius to block supplies to Cagliari . In June 1367 an Aragonese army led by Pedro of Urgell and reinforced by Bertrand du Gluescin and the "free companies", arrived at Cagliari and marched toward the Judicial capital, Oristano. Marianus would achieve a pyrrhic victory near Sant'Anna, but, by the next year, Urgell and du Gluescin had been able to recapture Orsillo. Later that year, the tide turned to Aragon when the fleet of the Republic of Genoa, in support of Marianus, attacked the port of Cagliari but was defeated and decimated by the Catalan fleet.
Marianus IV launched a great offensive in 1368. He conquered the castles of Fava, Pontes, Bonvehì and Pedres, leaving only Alghero and Longosardo to their adversaries. He then entered Villa di Chiesa and Sanluri. There, in the pains of Sanluri met the two armies (June 30, 1368). Thanks to the enveloping tactics of du Guesclin, the Aragonese army, less numerous though much better trained, managed to divide the Arborean army, including many Genoese crossbowmen, into two parts which were then destroyed separately. The right battle was broken into two part, the first was being chased to Sanluri and eventually was routed there, and the other one followed Marianus to take refuge in the castle of Monreale, in the nearby village of Sardara, The left battle was slaughtered in a plain which has taken the name of s'occidroxiu ("the slaughterhouse") ever since. Four days later, Villa di Chiesa surrendered to Urgell, which dealt a crippling blow to Arborea. Marianus fled to France to seek aid, leaving his son Hugo to defend Oristano. Hugo was able to withstand the enemy siege and luck seemed to be on his side when France and England clashed again in 1369 and Du Guesclin was recalled to France.
However, Hugo never obtained the reinforcements that his father had promised him. As soon as he arrived in France, he was arrested by order of Charles V of France, who thus honoured his alliance with Aragon. In spite of this, the Arboreans defended themselves strenuously and seven months passed before Pedro Torrelles conquered the castles of Monreale, Marmilla and Gioiosa Guardia. In January 1370 Oristano finally surrendered. All the historical Arborea was forfeited and Marianus exiled for life with some of his most hot-headed followers to Genoa. His son Hugo was given Campidano de Cabras, Milis and Simaxis along with the title of Marquis of Oristano. In 1372 Marianus would try to rise again the islands in rebellion with the support of the Dorias. Only Sassari rose in arms, but Pedro Martínez de Luna, the captain general and lieutenant of Pedro V, defeated them on May 5, 1372 in El Alghero. After his father died a few months later (August 7), and convinced that he could not improve the situation, Hugo surrendered to Aragon, and on August 17, what remained of the old Judicate of Arborea was sold to Aragon for 100,000 gold florins.
The unexpected death of Pedro I of Castille (March 14, 1370) made Pedro V to become very active at the Castilian court, as Pedro's successor, Alfonso XII (1359-1414), became king at the age of 11 and was promised to Pedro's sister, Leonor (1358-1382). During Alfonso's minority, a council of Regents was set up to govern Castille. It was made up by three of his uncles: Enrique, Count of Trastámara, and Sancho, Count of Albuquerque, half-brothers of his father, and from his mother's side, Diego García de Padilla, Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava; finally, Pedro V of Aragón was included, too, as he was the father-in-law of the king. Pedro would constantly clash with Pedro clashing with Enrique de Trastámara for the dominant role in the council. However, when Alfonso XII came of age in 1378 and was crowned, both Pedro and Enrique lost most of their power at court as the king restored to power the highly competent advisors of his father and also chose to favour the advice of the "Infantillos" (2), his personal advisors, over that of his uncles. The "Infantillos" was a mocking name to refer to those advisors, who were neither princes nor civil servants; their position was simply bases on being very close friends of the king.
(1) Pedro IV's fourth stillborn son with his first wife, María de Navarra, now gets the chance to live a full life.
(2) Infantillos = little princes.
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