Alfonso XI of Castile

Alfonso XI
Depiction in an illumination of Froissart's chronicles, c. 1410.
King of Castile and Leon
Reign 7 September 1313 – 26 March 1350
Predecessor Ferdinand IV
Successor Peter
Born 13 August 1311
Salamanca
Died 26 March 1350[1] (aged 38)
Gibraltar, Emirate of Granada
Burial Royal Collegiate Church of Saint Hippolytus
Spouse Constance of Peñafiel
(m. 1325, annulled 1327)
Maria of Portugal (m. 1328)
Issue
among others...		 Peter of Castile
(illeg.) Henry II of Castile
(illeg.) Fadrique Alfonso
(illeg.) Tello Alfonso
(illeg.) Sancho Alfonso
House Castilian House of Ivrea
Father Ferdinand IV of Castile
Mother Constance of Portugal
Religion Roman Catholicism
Signature

Alfonso XI of Castile (13 August 1311 – 26 March 1350), called the Avenger (el Justiciero), was the king of Castile, León and Galicia. He was the son of Ferdinand IV of Castile and his wife Constance of Portugal. Upon his father's death in 1312, several disputes ensued over who would hold regency, which were resolved in 1313.

Once Alfonso was declared adult in 1325, he began a reign that would serve to strengthen royal power. His achievements include solving the problems of the Gibraltar Strait and the conquest of Algeciras.

Life

Alfonso XI of Castile attacks the Muslim Moors led by Muhammed IV, Sultan of the emirate of Granada.
Alfonso XI and his nobles, in the 14th century Book of the Coronation of the Kings of Castile

Alfonso XI was the son of King Ferdinand IV of Castile and Constance of Portugal. His father died when Alfonso was one year old. His grandmother, María de Molina, his mother Constance, his granduncle Infante John of Castile, Lord of Valencia de Campos, son of King Alfonso X of Castile and uncle Infante Peter of Castile, Lord of Cameros, son of King Sancho IV assumed the regency. Queen Constance died first on 18 November 1313, followed by Infantes John and Peter during a military campaign against Granada in 1319, which left Dowager Queen María as the only regent until her death on 1 July 1321.

After the death of the infantes John and Peter in 1319, Philip (son of Sancho IV and María de Molina, thus brother of Infante Peter), Juan Manuel (the king's second-degree uncle by virtue of being Ferdinand III's grandson) and Juan el Tuerto (his second degree uncle, son of John of Castile who died in 1319) split the kingdom among themselves according to their aspirations for regency, even as it was being looted by moors and the rebellious nobility.

As soon as he took the throne, he began working hard to strengthen royal power by dividing his enemies. His early display of rulership skills included the unhesitant execution of possible opponents, including his uncle Juan el Tuerto in 1326.[2]

He managed to extend the limits of his kingdom to the Strait of Gibraltar after the important victory at the Battle of Río Salado against the Marinid Dynasty in 1340 and the conquest of the Kingdom of Algeciras in 1344. Once that conflict was resolved, he redirected all his Reconquista efforts to fighting the Moorish king of Granada.

He is variously known among Castilian kings as the Avenger or the Implacable, and as "He of Río Salado." The first two names he earned by the ferocity with which he repressed the disorders caused by the nobles during his long minority; the third by his victory in the Battle of Río Salado over the last formidable Marinid invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in 1340.

Alfonso XI never went to the insane lengths of his son Peter of Castile, but he could be bloody in his methods. He killed for reasons of state without any form of trial. He openly neglected his wife, Maria of Portugal, and indulged a scandalous passion for Eleanor of Guzman, who bore him ten children. This set Peter an example which he failed to better. It may be that his early death, during the Great Plague of 1350, at the Fifth Siege of Gibraltar, only averted a desperate struggle with Peter, though it was a misfortune in that it removed a ruler of eminent capacity, who understood his subjects well enough not to go too far.

Alfonso died in the night of 25–26 March 1350 (some sources put the date wrongfully at 27 March).[1]

Marriage and issue

Alfonso XI first married Constanza Manuel in 1325, but had the union annulled two years later. His second marriage, in 1328, was to Maria of Portugal, daughter of Alfonso IV of Portugal.[3] They had:

By his mistress, Eleanor of Guzman, he had ten children:

After Alfonso's death, his widow Maria had Eleanor arrested and later killed.[4]

Appearance

"...King Alfonso was not very tall but well proportioned, and he was rather strong and had fair skin and hair."[5]

Ancestry

Notes

  1. 1 2 León-Sotelo & González Crespo 1986, p. 588.
  2. ↑ Ruiz, Teofilo F., "Towards a Symbolic History of Alfonso XI of Castile: Power, Ceremony and Triumph", The Emergence of León-Castile c.1065–1500: Essays Presented to J.F. O'Callaghan, (James J Todesca, ed.), Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2015 ISBN 9781472400444
  3. ↑ Medieval Iberia: an encyclopedia, 75.
  4. ↑ Chapman, Charles Edward and Rafael Altamira, A history of Spain, (The MacMillan Company, 1922), 118.
  5. ↑ From 'Crónica de Pedro' by Pedro López de Ayala (1332–1407)

References

  • Chapman, Charles Edward and Rafael Altamira, A history of Spain, The MacMillan Company, 1922.
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Hannay, D. (1911). "Alphonso". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  • León-Sotelo, María & González Crespo, Esther (1986). "Notas para el itinerario de Alfonso XI en el periodo de 1344 a 1350". En la España Medieval (in Spanish). Vol. 8 no. 5. Complutense University of Madrid. pp. 575–589. ISSN 0214-3038.
  • Medieval Iberia: an encyclopedia, Ed. E. Michael Gerli and Samuel G. Armistead, Routledge, 2003.
Alfonso XI of Castile
Born: 13 August 1311 Died: 26 March 1350
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Ferdinand IV		 King of Castile and León
1312–1350		 Succeeded by
Peter

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