Henry II of Castile

Henry II (13 January 1334 – 29 May 1379), called Henry of Trastámara or the Fratricidal (el Fratricida), was the first

At birth, he was adopted by Rodrigo Álvarez de las Asturias. Rodrigo died the following year and Henry inherited his lordship of Noreña. His father later made him Count of Trastámara and lord over Lemos and Sarria in Galicia, and the towns of Cabrera and Ribera, which constituted a large and important heritage in the northwest of the peninsula. It made him the head of the new Trastámara dynasty, arising from the main branch of Burgundy-Ivrea.

While Alfonso XI lived, his lover Eleanor gave a great many titles and privileges to their sons. This caused discontent among many of the noblemen and in particular the queen, Maria of Portugal, and her son, Peter.

They had a chance for revenge when Alfonso XI died unexpectedly from a fever in the siege of Gibraltar in March, 1350. They pushed Eleanor, her sons and their supporters aside, and Henry and his brothers fled and scattered. They were fearful of what their brother, King Peter, could do to them. The late king had not even been buried.

Although Eleanor and her sons reached an agreement with Peter to live peacefully in his court, the situation remained unstable. Henry and his brothers Fadrique,

After that, Henry fled to Portugal. He was pardoned by Pedro and returned to Castile, then revolted in Asturias in 1352. He reconciled with his brother, only to rebel against him again in a long, intermittent war, which ended with Henry's flight to France, where he entered the service of John II of France.

Shortly after, Henry and his men spent time in Peter IV of Aragon's army in their war against Castile (1358). During that conflict, he was defeated and held prisoner in Nájera (1360). He was liberated (with the help of Juan Ramírez de Arellano, among others) and exiled himself to France once more.

Then Peter IV of Aragon attacked Castile again. Henry agreed to help him on condition that he would lend his support to destroying his half-brother. This became the Castilian Civil War. The attack combined Henry's Castillian allies, the Aragonese and the French (a company of Bertrand du Guesclin's mercenaries, expelled by Peter of Castile, who had taken refuge in Guyenne). Henry was proclaimed king in Calahorra (1366).^[3] In return, he had to reward his allies with titles and riches for the help they had provided. This earned him the nickname el de las mercedes ("mercedes being Spanish for "mercies").

Peter of Castile fled north to

They reorganised their army at Peyrepertuse Castle. Then, with the help of many Castilian rebels and Bertrand du Guesclin's Frenchmen, they defeated Peter at the Battle of Montiel on 14 March 1369.^[6] Henry killed "the Cruel King", now a prisoner, with his own hand.^[7] This definitively won him the Castilian throne and the name of Henry II.

Before being consolidated in his throne and being able to hand on power to his son John, Henry had to defeat

Henry recompensed his allies, but he still had to defend his interests in the kingdom of Castile and León. Consequently, he denied the King of Aragon the territories that he had promised him in the difficult times.

Henry then went to war against

He died on 29 May 1379 in Santo Domingo de la Calzada. His son John I of Castile succeeded him on the throne.

Policy regarding Jews

Henry was as hostile to the Jews as Peter had been friendly.^[8] In order to pay Bertrand du Guesclin's mercenaries, he imposed a war contribution of twenty thousand gold doubloons on the already heavily oppressed community of Toledo, and issued an order to take all the Jews of Toledo as prisoners, to give them neither food nor drink, and if they still refused to raise this enormous sum, to sell their property, both movable and immovable, at auction. Nonetheless, he was compelled, owing to his financial straits, to have recourse to Jewish financiers. He made Don Joseph Pichon his chief tax-collector (contador major), and appointed several Jews farmers of the taxes.^[9]

The demands of the Cortes in Toro (1369) and in Burgos (1374 and 1377) against the Jews harmonized perfectly with Henry's inclinations. He ordered the Jews to wear the humiliating badge, and forbade them to use Christian names. He further ordered that for short loans Christian debtors should repay only two-thirds of the principal. Shortly before his death Henry declared that Jews should no longer be permitted to hold public office.^[9]

Henry was potentially the first ruler since the Visigothic King

After Henry's death, his body was transported to Burgos, then to Valladolid, then finally to Toledo where he was buried in Capilla de los Reyes Nuevos de Toledo^[10] His remains are still there today. His grave is in the choir stalls at one side of the church and it is in the Plateresque style. The box is adorned with the shields of Castille and León, and the lower interior part has three panels decorated with trophies. There are two cherubs over the panels, holding the cartouche on which the king's epitaph is displayed. The inscription translates to:^[11]

Here lies the most adventurous and noble knight and king, the sweetly remembered Don Henry, son of the late noble king Don Alfonso, who came from Benmarin and ended his life in Santo Domingo de la Calzada, he just died gloriously on the XXX day of May, in the year of our saviour Jesus Christ MCCCLXXIX.

There is a recumbent statue of Henry II on top of the tomb. It is made from polychromed alabaster. It depicts the king wearing his royal robes, with his sword in his left hand and his girdle decorated with the lions of Castile. His right hand holds the sceptre, the upper end of which rests on three pillows that support the monarch's head. The king wears slippers and his feet rest on a recumbent lion.

The king's entrails are buried in the

Partners and children

On 27 July 1350, Henry married

• John I (1358–1390)
• Eleanor (1361–1425), wife of Charles III of Navarre
• Joanna (1372–1376), died young

He had several children outside wedlock, some of which he mentioned in his will dated 29 May 1374:^[12]

• Alfonso Enriquez, Count of Gijón and Noreña (1355 – c. 1400), a son of Elvira Íñiguez,^{[note 1]} Count of Noreña and Gijón. He married Isabel of Portugal, Lady of Viseu.
• Leonor de Castilla, daughter of Leonor Álvarez, from Dueñas, Palencia.
• Juana de Castilla (1367–¿?), daughter of Elvira Íñiguez. Her father mentioned her in his will, and said that if she did not marry Pedro de Aragón then she would inherit Urueña. Pedro was the Marquis of Villena (1362—Aljubarrota, 1385) and son of Alfonso de Aragón y Foix.^{[note 2]}
• Constanza Enríquez de Castilla. Her father did not mention her mother's name. When he wrote the will in 1374, she was engaged to
  Infante John, Duke of Valencia de Campos (1349–1387). She inherited Alba de Tormes
  .
• Fernando Enríquez de Castilla (1365–1438). His father describes him as the son of Beatriz Fernández.
• María de Castilla (1375-c.1393), daughter of Beatriz Fernández. She married Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (Admiral of Castile), Lord of Mendoza, and Mayordomo mayor of King John II of Castile.
• Fadrique de Castilla (1360–1394), son of Beatriz Ponce de León y Jérica. Named Duke of Benavente by his father, he died in prison in
  Sancho Alfonso, 1st Count of Alburquerque
  .
• Beatriz de Castilla (?-1409), daughter of Beatriz Ponce de León y Jérica and Lady of Niebla. She married Juan Alonso de Guzmán in 1370 or 1371. He was Lord of Sanlúcar de Barrameda and the first Count of Niebla. Later she became a nun in the San Clement Monastery in Seville, where she was buried.^{[note 3]}
• Enrique de Castilla (1378–1404), son of the Cordoban Lady Juana de Sousa, daughter of Vasco Alfonso de Sousa, the mayor of
  Cathedral of Córdoba.^{[note 4]}
• Pedro Enríquez de Castilla (?-1366). He is buried in Segovia Cathedral.
• Isabel Enríquez de Castilla (?-c.1419), daughter of Juana de Cárcamo. She married Gonzalo Núñez de Guzmán, however, this marriage was dissolved by Pope Clemente VII. Later she entered the monastery of Santa Clara la Real de Toledo where she became its abbess and was buried.
• Inés Enríquez de Castilla (?-c.1443), daughter of Juana de Cárcamo, also an abbess of the monastery at Santa Clara la Real de Toledo where she was buried.^{[note 5]}
• Juana Enríquez de Castilla, daughter de Juana, Lady of Cifuentes and wife of
  Santa María de Guadalupe.^[13]

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References

1. ^ Borrás Gualis 2014, p. 172.
2. ^ Bartlett 2020, p. 174.
3. ^ Hume, Martin Andrew Sharp. The Spanish People, D. Appleton, 1911
4. ^ Green, David. "Masculinity and Medicine: Thomas Washington and the Death of the Black Prince." Journal of Medieval History 35.1 (2009). 34-51
5. ^ Sumption 1999, p. 554.
6. ^ Todesca 2015, p. 129.
7. ^ Todesca 2015, p. 141.
8. anno mundi (corresponding with 1369/70 of our Common Era) there was a time of great disturbance all throughout the Jewish communities of Castille and Ṭulayṭulah (Toledo
   ) and that 38,000 Jews were killed in the ensuing wars between Henry and Peter.
9. ^ ^{a b} "Henry II, or Henry de Trastamara", Jewish encyclopedia
10. ^ Elorza et al. 1990, pp. 63–64
11. ^ Elorza et al. 1990, p. 64
12. Pedro López de Ayala [1]
13. ^ Arco y Garay 1954, p. 310

Bibliography

• Arco y Garay, Ricardo del (1954). Instituto Jerónimo Zurita. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. (ed.). Sepulcros de la Casa Real de Castilla [Tombs of the Castilian Royal Family] (in Spanish) (1st ed.). Madrid.
  OCLC 11366237.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
  )
• Bartlett, Robert (2020). Blood Royal: Dynastic Politics in Medieval Europe. Cambridge University Press.
• Borrás Gualis, Gonzalo M. (2014). "La Virgen de Tobed. Exvoto dinástico de los Trastámara" (PDF). In Escribano Paño, María Victoria; Duplá Ansuátegui, Antonio; Sancho Rocher, Laura; Villacampa Rubio, María Angustias (eds.). Miscelánea de estudios en homenaje a Guillermo Fatás Cabeza. Zaragoza: Institución Fernando el Católico. pp. 167–176.
  ISBN 978-84-9911-302-9
  .
• Elorza, Juan C.; Vaquero, Lourdes; Castillo, Belén; Negro, Marta (1990). Junta de Castilla y León. Consejería de Cultura y Bienestar Social (ed.). El Panteón Real de las Huelgas de Burgos. Los enterramientos de los reyes de León y de Castilla [The Royal Pantheon of the Huelgas de Burgos. The graves of the monarchs of León and Castile] (in Spanish) (2nd ed.). Editorial Evergráficas S.A.
  ISBN 84-241-9999-5
  .
• OCLC 489686613
  . (critical edition and notes by Germán Orduna; a preliminary study by Germán Orduna and José Luis Moure)
• Sumption, Jonathan (1999). The Hundred Years War Volume II: Trial by Fire. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.
  ISBN 978-0-8122-3527-2
  .
• Valdeón Baruque, Julio (1996). Palencia. Diputación Provincial de Palencia (ed.). Enrique II. Diputación Provincial de Palencia.
  ISBN 84-8173-051-3
  .
• Todesca, James, ed. (2015). The Emergence of León-Castile c.1065-1500: Essays Presented to J.F. O'Callaghan. Ashgate Publishing Limited.

Henry II of Castile House of Trastámara Cadet branch of the House of Ivrea Born: 13 January 1334 Died: 29 May 1379
Regnal titles
Preceded by Peter	King of Castile and León 1366–1367	Succeeded by Peter
	King of Castile and León 1369–1379	Succeeded by John I