War of the Two Peters

Last updated
War of the Two Peters
Part of the Hundred Years' War
Date1356–1375
Location
Mostly towns in the Kingdom of Aragon and the Kingdom of Valencia, coast of the Principality of Catalonia
Result

Trastámarian victory

Belligerents

Royal Coat of Arms of the Crown of Castile (1284-1390).svg Crown of Castile

With the support of:
Royal Arms of England (1340-1367).svg Kingdom of England
CoA civ ITA genova.png Republic of Genoa
PortugueseFlag1248.svg Kingdom of Portugal
Blason Royaume Navarre.svg Kingdom of Navarre
COA of Nasrid dynasty kingdom of Grenada (1013-1492).svg Emirate of Granada

Royal arms of Aragon.svg Crown of Aragon

With the support of:
Royal Coat of Arms of the Crown of Castile (1284-1390).svg Henry II of Castile
Blason France moderne.svg Kingdom of France
Commanders and leaders
Royal Coat of Arms of the Crown of Castile (1284-1390).svg Peter of Castile
Arms of the Prince of Wales (Ancient).svg Edward the Black Prince
Arms of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster.svg John of Gaunt
Royal arms of Aragon.svg Peter IV of Aragon
Royal Coat of Arms of the Crown of Castile (15th Century).svg Henry II of Castile

The War of the Two Peters (Spanish : La Guerra de los Dos Pedros, Catalan : Guerra dels dos Peres) was fought from 1356 to 1375 between the crowns of Castile and Aragon. The conflict was a struggle between two claimants to the throne of Castile, Peter of Castile and Peter IV of Aragon. The former Peter was supported by England and several English nobles led by Edward III and his son, while the latter Peter was supported by France. The conflict also brought in the involvement of the kingdoms of Navarre and Portugal. The war resulted in Aragon gaining the upper hand, but it also devastated its economy that was already reeling from the effects of the Black Death.

Contents

Background

Peter IV, King of Aragon by Goncal Peris Sarria & Jaume Mateu (1427) Jaume Mateu - Peter IV the Ceremonious - Google Art Project.jpg
Peter IV, King of Aragon by Gonçal Peris Sarrià & Jaume Mateu (1427)
Alabaster sculpture of Peter the Cruel, from 1504 Estatua de Pedro I el Cruel (M.A.N.) 01.jpg
Alabaster sculpture of Peter the Cruel, from 1504

At the beginning of the fourteenth century, Castile was suffering from unrest caused by its civil war, which was fought between the local and allied forces of the reigning king, Peter of Castile, and his half-brother Henry of Trastámara over the right to the crown.

Peter IV of Aragon supported Henry of Trastámara. Henry was also supported by the French commander Bertrand du Guesclin and his "free companies" of troops. Peter of Castile was supported by the English. The War of the Two Peters can thus be considered an extension of the wider Hundred Years' War as well as the Castilian Civil War.

Peter of Castile sought to claim the Kingdom of Valencia, which included parts of Murcia, Elche, Alicante, and Orihuela. Peter of Aragon wished to dominate the Mediterranean in opposition to Castile and Castile's ally Genoa. [1]

A naval incident between the two powers had already caused tension: Catalan galleys, armed by Mossèn Francesc de Perellós, who had letters of marque from the Aragonese king, aided France against England, and also managed to capture two Genoese ships at Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Genoa was an ally of Castile. Peter of Castile, leading the Castilian fleet, caught up to Perellós at Tavira but was unable to capture him.

War

1356–1363

The war lasted from 1356 to 1375, prolonged because Peter of Castile lost his throne to Henry of Trastámara. The war primarily took place on the border between Castile and Aragon, namely Aragonese border towns such as Teruel, which fell to the Castilians.

In 1357, Castile penetrated Aragon and conquered Tarazona on March 9; on May 8, they arranged a temporary truce.

At the beginning of 1361, the Castilians conquered the fortresses of Verdejo, Torrijos, Alhama, and other places. However, the peace of Terrer (sometimes called the peace of Deza) was negotiated on May 18, 1361, in which all conquered places and castles were returned to their original lords. Bernardo de Cabrera, ambassador of the Aragonese king, negotiated the peace. Peter IV married his daughter Constance to Frederick III the Simple. [2]

In June 1362, Peter of Castile met with Charles II of Navarre at Soria, and mutual aid was promised. Peter also contracted an alliance with Edward III of England and Edward's son The Black Prince.

With these negotiations complete, the Castilian king invaded Aragonese territory without officially declaring war, and the conflict commenced again. The Aragonese king was at Perpignan without troops, and thus caught off guard. The Castilians took the castles of Arize, Atece, Terrer, Moros, Cetina, and Alhama. Peter of Castile was unable to take Calatayud, even though he attacked it with all types of siege machines. Without taking his conquests any further, he returned to Seville.

In 1363 Castile continued the war against Aragon, and again occupied Tarazona. Peter of Castile received reinforcements from Portugal and Navarre. Meanwhile, the Aragonese king negotiated a treaty with France and a secret treaty with Henry II of Castile. Pedro of Castile then conquered Cariñena, Teruel, Segorbe, Morvedre, Almenara, Xiva, and Bunyol.

The papal nuncio Jean de la Grange arranged the peace of Morvedre (Sagunt) (July 2, 1363) between the two kings. The peace was not ratified, however, and hostilities continued. The Castilians penetrated the Kingdom of Valencia in 1363, and conquered Alicante, Caudete, Elda, Gandia, and other places.

1363–1369

From 1365 to 1369 Peter of Castile was preoccupied with maintaining his position on the Castilian throne against Henry of Trastámara.

The Castilian Civil War began in 1366 and Peter of Castile was dethroned. He was assailed by his illegitimate brother Henry of Trastámara at the head of a host of soldiers of fortune, including Bertrand du Guesclin and Hugh Calveley. Peter abandoned the kingdom without daring to give battle, after retreating several times (first from Burgos, then from Toledo, and finally from Seville) in the face of the oncoming armies. Peter fled with his treasury to Portugal, where he was coldly received by his uncle, King Peter I of Portugal, and thence to Galicia, in northern Spain, where he ordered the murder of Suero, the archbishop of Santiago, and the dean, Perálvarez. Both the Archbishop and the Dean were supporters of Henry.

Peter of Castile was overthrown in 1369. He was killed by Henry. [3]

Invasion of Valencia

The Kingdom of Granada supported Peter of Castile in the War of the Two Peters. [4] Castilian troops and their Moorish allies invaded southern Valencia, which suffered low-level ravaging and political instability. The Castilians unsuccessfully laid siege to Orihuela in 1364. [5]

End of the war

The region in 1360 Spanish kingdoms 1360.jpg
The region in 1360

Castile recovered comarcas that had passed under Aragonese rule, such as the lordship of Molina. A marriage was contracted between Eleanor of Aragon, daughter of Peter IV of Aragon, and John I of Castile, the successor of Henry II of Castile.

The misery of the war was compounded by the Black Death and other natural disasters, such as drought and a plague of locusts. These events ruined the Aragonese economy, leading to a decrease of the country’s population. [6] The Cathedral of Tarazona was destroyed during the war and not rebuilt until much later.

However, the war is believed to have led to the establishment of administrative and military forces that would ultimately result in a unified Castile and Aragon in the next century. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter of Castile</span> King of Castile and León (1350–1366) and (1367–1369)

Peter, called Peterthe Cruel or the Just, was King of Castile and León from 1350 to 1369. Peter was the last ruler of the main branch of the House of Ivrea. He was excommunicated by Pope Urban V for his persecutions and cruelties committed against the clergy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferdinand I of Portugal</span> King of Portugal from 1367 to 1383

Ferdinand I, sometimes called the Handsome or occasionally the Inconstant, was the King of Portugal from 1367 until his death in 1383. He was also briefly made King of Galicia, in 1369. Facing a lack of legitimate male heirs, his death led to the 1383–85 crisis, also known as the Portuguese interregnum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry II of Castile</span> King of Castile and León (1366–1367) and (1369-1379)

Henry II, called Henry of Trastámara or the Fratricidal, was the first King of Castile and León from the House of Trastámara. He became king in 1369 by defeating his half-brother Peter the Cruel, after numerous rebellions and battles. As king he was involved in the Fernandine Wars and the Hundred Years' War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fadrique Alfonso</span> Illegitimate child of Alfonso XI of Castile (1334–1358)

Fadrique Alfonso of Castile, 1st Señor de Haro (1334–1358), 25th Master of the Order of Santiago (1342–1358), was the fifth illegitimate child of Alfonso XI of Castile and Eleanor of Guzman. He was born in Seville.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Nájera</span> Battle of the Castilian Civil War

The Battle of Nájera, also known as the Battle of Navarrete, was fought on 3 April 1367 to the northeast of Nájera, in the province of La Rioja, Castile. It was an episode of the first Castilian Civil War which confronted King Peter of Castile with his half-brother Count Henry of Trastámara who aspired to the throne; the war involved Castile in the Hundred Years' War. Castilian naval power, far superior to that of France or England, encouraged the two polities to take sides in the civil war, to gain control over the Castilian fleet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Montiel</span> 1369 battle in La Mancha, Castile

The Battle of Montiel was fought on 14 March 1369 between the Franco-Castilian forces supporting Henry of Trastámara and the Granadian-Castilian forces supporting the reigning Peter of Castile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">House of Trastámara</span> Royal house of Castilian origin

The House of Trastámara was a royal dynasty which first ruled in the Crown of Castile and then expanded to the Crown of Aragon in the late middle ages to the early modern period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crown of Castile</span> Former country in the Iberian Peninsula from 1230 to 1715

The Crown of Castile was a medieval polity in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and, some decades later, the parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accession of the then Castilian king, Ferdinand III, to the vacant Leonese throne. It continued to exist as a separate entity after the personal union in 1469 of the crowns of Castile and Aragon with the marriage of the Catholic Monarchs up to the promulgation of the Nueva Planta decrees by Philip V in 1715.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Castilian Civil War</span> 14th-century war of succession in the Kingdom of Castile

The Castilian Civil War was a war of succession over the Crown of Castile that lasted from 1351 to 1369. The conflict started after the death of king Alfonso XI of Castile in March 1350. It became part of the larger conflict then raging between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of France: the Hundred Years' War. It was fought primarily in Castile and its coastal waters between the local and allied forces of the reigning king, Peter, and his illegitimate brother Henry of Trastámara over the right to the crown.

The Treaty of Torrellas, signed in Torrellas on 8 August 1304, settled the question of conquest of the Kingdom of Murcia, thitherto a dependency of the Crown of Castile, by James II of Aragon. The agreement favored the Crown of Aragon, straining ties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Infantes of Aragon</span> Term for the sons of King Ferdinand I of Aragon

The Infantes of Aragon is an appellation commonly used by Spanish historians to refer to a group of 15th-century infantes (princes) of the House of Trastámara, specifically the sons of King Ferdinand I of Aragon and his wife Eleanor of Alburquerque:

The Battle of Barcelona was a naval engagement fought in the coastal region of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, between the navies of the Crowns of Aragon and Castile, during the War of the Two Peters. A number of months beforehand, a large Castilian fleet had been assembled at Seville by order of the King of Castile, Peter I. Consisting of 128 warships including royal vessels, ships from the King of Castile's vassals, and several others that had been sent by the Castilian-allied monarchs of Portugal and Granada, this large fleet had been entrusted to the Genoese admiral, Egidio Boccanegra, who was seconded by two of his relatives, Ambrogio and Bartolome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Araviana</span>

The Battle of Araviana was a cavalry action fought during the War of the Two Peters on 22 September 1359. Eight hundred Aragonese horse, many of them Castilian exiles in service of the Crown of Aragon under Henry of Trastámara, had launched a cavalgada in Castilian territory when, near the Castilian town of Ágreda, confronted and routed a Castilian force under Juan Fernández de Henestrosa set to guard the frontier. Numerous Castilian noblemen and knights were killed, including Henestrosa, while many other were captured.

Coming to power in 1369, the House of Trastámara was a lineage of rulers of the Castilian and Aragonese thrones. The line of Trastámaran royalty in Castile ruled throughout a time period of military struggle with Aragon. Their family was sustained with large amounts of inbreeding, which led to a series of disputed struggles over rightful claims to the Castilian throne. This lineage ultimately ruled in Castile from the rise to power of Henry II in 1369 through the unification of the crowns under Ferdinand and Isabella.

Diego García de Padilla was a Spanish nobleman who became Master of the Order of Calatrava. His sister María de Padilla was the wife of King Peter of Castile, the Cruel. Padilla fought for Peter of Castile in the wars against Aragon and Granada. In the Castilian Civil War (1366–69) he went over to the side of Henry of Trastámara.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Castilian House of Burgundy</span>

The Castilian House of Ivrea, also known as the House of Burgundy, is a cadet branch of the House of Ivrea descended from Raymond of Burgundy. Raymond married Urraca, the eldest legitimate daughter of Alfonso VI of León and Castile of the House of Jiménez. Two years after Raymond's death, Urraca succeeded her father and became queen of Castile and León; Urraca's and Raymond's offspring in the legitimate line ruled the kingdom from 1126 until the death of Peter of Castile in 1369, while their descendants in an illegitimate line, the House of Trastámara, would rule Castile and Aragón into the 16th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter, Count of Ribagorza</span>

Peter of Aragon was an infante of the Crown of Aragon who served three successive kings as a soldier, diplomat and counsellor before joining the Franciscans in 1358.

The Treaty of Libourne was signed at Libourne on 23 September 1366 between King Peter I of Castile, Edward the Black Prince, heir to the English crown, and King Charles II of Navarre. It led to the English involvement against France in the Castilian Civil War as part of the Hundred Years War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Castilian Civil War of 1437–1445</span> Civil War for the Crown of Castile

The Castilian Civil War of 1437–1445 was a civil war in which two noble factions fought for power in the Crown of Castile. On one side was Constable Álvaro de Luna, King John II of Castile, and Henry Prince of Asturias. On the other side was the noble League led by Infantes of Aragon John and Henry, sons of Ferdinand of Antequera, who was the regent of Castile during the minority of John II. Although the Infantes of Aragon faction won in 1441, imposing their conditions in the Medina del Campo ruling, the final victory went to the royalist faction and the Constable, who won the decisive battle of Olmedo. According to historian Carme Batlle, Álvaro de Luna is primarily responsible for the war. Following his victory over the Infantes of Aragon during the truces of Majano, Luna's "authoritarian excesses" escalated and led to a civil war. Although Batlle places the war's start in 1439.

References

  1. Archived June 9, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  2. "1360 - 1365". Uv.es. Retrieved 2015-05-31.
  3. "Guerra de los dos Pedros (1356-1369) - Página de voz - Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa OnLine". Enciclopedia-aragonesa.com. Retrieved 2015-05-31.
  4. "Villalon and Kagay - The Hundred Years War: A Wider Focus". Deremilitari.org. Retrieved 2015-05-31.
  5. "If these walls could talk". Thinkspain.com. Retrieved 2015-05-31.
  6. Archived December 21, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  7. Donald J. Kagay, "The Defense of the Crown of Aragon during the War of the Two Pedros (1356-1366)," The Journal of Military History, Volume 71, Number 1, January 2007, pp. 11-31.

Bibliography