English interference in the [[Kingdom of Castile]] started in early 1366 after [[Pedro the Cruel]] was [[Crown of Castile#Ascension of the Trastámara dynasty|expelled]]{{sfn|Thompson|1892|p=418}} as part of an [[Castilian Civil War|ongoing civil war]] after his illegitimate half-brother [[Henry of Trastamare]] invaded with a French army of 12,000 men led by the prominent commander [[Bertrand du Guesclin]].{{Sfn|Curry|2002|pp=69–70}} Pedro was welcomed in [[English controlled Bordeaux]] by [[Edward III]]’s oldest son, also Edward who was the [[Prince of Aquitaine and Gascony]]{{sfn|Thompson|1892|p=418}} and John of Gaunt was sent with English troops to support Pedro in 1367{{sfn|Walker|2008}} with Anglo-Gascon forces winning the [[Battle of Nájera]] in April{{Sfn|Wagner|2006|p=78}} and restoring Pedro to his throne.{{sfn|Thompson|1892|p=418}}
English interference in the [[Kingdom of Castile]] started in early 1366 after [[Pedro the Cruel]] was [[Crown of Castile#Ascension of the Trastámara dynasty|expelled]]{{sfn|Thompson|1892|p=418}} as part of an [[Castilian Civil War|ongoing civil war]] after his illegitimate half-brother [[Henry of Trastamare]] invaded with a French army of 12,000 men led by the prominent commander [[Bertrand du Guesclin]].{{Sfn|Curry|2002|pp=69–70}} Pedro was welcomed in [[English controlled Bordeaux]] by [[Edward III]]’s oldest son, also Edward who was the [[Prince of Aquitaine and Gascony]]{{sfn|Thompson|1892|p=418}} and John of Gaunt was sent with English troops to support Pedro in 1367{{sfn|Walker|2008}} with Anglo-Gascon forces winning the [[Battle of Nájera]] in April{{Sfn|Wagner|2006|p=78}} and restoring Pedro to his throne.{{sfn|Thompson|1892|p=418}}
Although the Castilians had agreed to fund the Black Prince, they failed to do so. The Prince was suffering from ill health and returned with his army to Aquitaine. To pay off debts incurred during the Castile campaign, the prince instituted a [[hearth tax]]. [[Arnaud Amanieu, Lord of Albret|Arnaud-Amanieu VIII]], Lord of [[Albret]] had fought on the Black Prince’s side during the war. Albret, who already had become discontented by the influx of English administrators into the enlarged Aquitaine, refused to allow the tax to be collected in his fief. He then joined a group of Gascon lords who appealed to Charles V for support in their refusal to pay the tax. Charles V summoned one Gascon lord and the Black Prince to hear the case in his High Court in Paris. The Black Prince answered that he would go to Paris with sixty thousand men behind him. War broke out again and Edward III resumed the title of King of France.{{Sfn|Wagner|2006|p=122}} Charles V declared that all the English possessions in France were forfeited, and before the end of 1369 all of Aquitaine was in full revolt.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wagner|2006|p=122}}; {{Harvnb|Wagner|2006|pp=3–4}}.</ref>
to fund the Prince suffering from ill health returned to Aquitaine. the Aquitaine a in the and the War.{{Sfn|Wagner|2006|p=122}} Charles V declared that all the English possessions in France were forfeited, and before the end of 1369 all of Aquitaine was in full revolt.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wagner|2006|p=122}}; {{Harvnb|Wagner|2006|pp=3–4}}.</ref>
With the Black Prince gone from Castile, Henry of Trastámara led a second invasion that ended with Pedro’s death at the [[Battle of Montiel]] in March 1369 and Henry became [[Henry II of Castile]]. The new Castilian regime provided naval support to French campaigns against Aquitaine and England.{{Sfn|Wagner|2006|p=78}} In 1372, the Castilian fleet defeated the English fleet in the [[Battle of La Rochelle]].
With the Black Prince gone from Castile, Henry of Trastámara led a second invasion that ended with Pedro’s death at the [[Battle of Montiel]] in March 1369 and Henry became [[Henry II of Castile]]. The new Castilian regime provided naval support to French campaigns against Aquitaine and England.{{Sfn|Wagner|2006|p=78}} In 1372, the Castilian fleet defeated the English fleet in the [[Battle of La Rochelle]].
John of Gaunt claimed the throne of Castile through his marriage to Constance of Castile in 1371. This proved to be an important component in the second phase of the Hundred Years War.
Aquitaine and Castile
English interference in the Kingdom of Castile started in early 1366 after Pedro the Cruel was expelled as part of an ongoing civil war after his illegitimate half-brother Henry of Trastamare invaded with a French army of 12,000 men led by the prominent commander Bertrand du Guesclin. Pedro was welcomed in English controlled Bordeaux by Edward III‘s oldest son, also Edward who was the Prince of Aquitaine and Gascony and John of Gaunt was sent with English troops to support Pedro in 1367 with Anglo-Gascon forces winning the Battle of Nájera in April and restoring Pedro to his throne.
Pedro refused to honour his agreement to fund the English and so with the Black Prince suffering from ill health the English returned to Aquitaine. The attempt to raise money to pay off the debt within Aquitaine started a rebellion which drew in the French King and restarted the Hundred Years War. Charles V declared that all the English possessions in France were forfeited, and before the end of 1369 all of Aquitaine was in full revolt.[6]
With the Black Prince gone from Castile, Henry of Trastámara led a second invasion that ended with Pedro’s death at the Battle of Montiel in March 1369 and Henry became Henry II of Castile. The new Castilian regime provided naval support to French campaigns against Aquitaine and England. In 1372, the Castilian fleet defeated the English fleet in the Battle of La Rochelle.
Gaunt’s marriage and claim
Gaunt married Pedro’s elder daughter Constance of Castile September 1371 who had a claim to the Castilan throne after her father’s death.
Gaunt assumed the claim officially from 29 January 1372 the title of King of Castile and León, and insisted his fellow English nobles henceforth address him as “my lord of Spain”.[7] He impaled his arms with those of the Spanish kingdom. From 1372, John gathered around himself a small court of refugee Castilian knights and ladies and set up a Castilian chancery that prepared documents in his name according to the style of Peter of Castile, dated by the Castilian era and signed by himself with the Spanish formula “Yo El Rey” (“I, the King”). He hatched several schemes to make good his claim with an army, but for many years these were still-born owing to lack of finance or the conflicting claims of war in France or with Scotland.[citation needed]
Way of Portugal
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It was only in 1386, after Portugal under its new King John I had entered into a full alliance with England, that he was actually able to land with an army in Spain and mount a campaign for the throne of Castile (that ultimately failed). John sailed from England on 9 July 1386 with a huge Anglo-Portuguese fleet carrying an army of about 5,000 men plus an extensive “royal” household and his wife and daughters. Pausing on the journey to use his army to drive off the French forces who were then besieging Brest, he landed at Corunna in northern Spain on 29 July.
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The Castilian king, John of Trastámara, had expected John would land in Portugal and had concentrated his forces on the Portuguese border. He was wrong-footed by John’s decision to invade Galicia, the most distant and disaffected of Castile’s kingdoms. From August to October, John of Gaunt set up a rudimentary court and chancery at Ourense and received the submission of the Galician nobility and most of the towns of Galicia, though they made their homage to him conditional on his being recognised as king by the rest of Castile. While John of Gaunt had gambled on an early decisive battle, the Castilians were in no hurry to join battle, and he began to experience difficulties keeping his army together and paying it. In November, he met King John I of Portugal at Ponte do Mouro on the south side of the Minho river and concluded an agreement with him to make a joint Anglo-Portuguese invasion of central Castile early in 1387. The treaty was sealed by the marriage of John’s eldest daughter Philippa to the Portuguese king. A large part of John’s army had succumbed to sickness, however, and when the invasion was mounted, they were far outnumbered by their Portuguese allies. The campaign of April–June 1387 was an ignominious failure. The Castilians refused to offer battle and the Galician-Anglo-Portuguese troops, apart from time-wasting sieges of fortified towns, were reduced to foraging for food in the arid Spanish landscape. They were harried mainly by French mercenaries of the Castilian king. Many hundreds of English, including close friends and retainers of John of Gaunt, died of disease or exhaustion. Many deserted or abandoned the army to ride north under French safe conducts. Shortly after the army returned to Portugal, John of Gaunt concluded a secret treaty with John of Trastámara under which he and his wife renounced all claim to the Castilian throne in return for a large annual payment and the marriage of their daughter Catherine to John of Trastámara’s son, Henry.
References
Sources
- Curry, Anne (2002). The Hundred Years’ War 1337–1453 (PDF). Essential Histories. Vol. 19. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-8417-6269-2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-09-27.
- Thompson, Edward Maunde (1892). . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- Sumption, J. (19 March 2009). The Hundred Years War 3: Divided Houses. London: Faber & Faber. p. 274. ISBN 978-0-571-13897-5.
- Walker, Simon (2008) [2004]. “John [John of Gaunt], duke of Aquitaine and duke of Lancaster, styled king of Castile and León (1340–1399)”. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14843. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
- Wagner, J. (2006). “Castilan War of Succession (1362–1369)” (PDF). Encyclopedia of the Hundred Years War. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-3133-2736-0. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 July 2018.
