Why was Peter I of Castile called the Cruel?

Because he had many relatives and nobles killed. His half-brother Fadrique, master of the Order of Santiago, was murdered on his orders in Seville in 1358, and Leonor de Guzmán's two youngest sons died in prison. The chronicler Ayala, who later served Peter's killer, made these deaths the core of his portrait.

Why was Peter of Castile also called the Just?

His supporters called him el Justiciero, the Just, because his severity fell mostly on rebellious nobles. Prosper Mérimée argued that ordinary people praised a king who demanded the same obedience from rich and poor. Recent Spanish historians describe him as neither cruel nor just, but a king of his time.

Who killed Peter the Cruel?

His half-brother Henry of Trastámara. On the night of 23 March 1369, after his defeat near Montiel, Peter left the castle to meet Bertrand du Guesclin, who had been offered lands and money to save him. It was a trap: Henry arrived, wounded him in the face with a dagger and stabbed him to death.

How long did Peter I of Castile reign?

Peter became king in 1350, at fifteen, and was killed in March 1369, so he reigned for nearly nineteen years. From 1366 his half-brother Henry also called himself king, and for the last three years Castile had two rival kings fighting a civil war.

Who was Blanche of Bourbon?

A French princess whom Peter married at Valladolid in June 1353. He soon left her for his mistress María de Padilla, and great nobles took up her cause in their revolt of 1354. She died a prisoner in 1361; Ayala says Peter had her killed, while Mérimée thought a natural death possible.

What dynasty replaced Peter I?

The house of Trastámara. Its founder was Peter's half-brother and killer, Henry II, an illegitimate son of Alfonso XI and Leonor de Guzmán. Henry's victory at Montiel in 1369 ended the civil war, and the chronicler Ayala, who served the new kings, shaped how later generations saw Peter.

Peter of Castile: Why He Was Called Peter the Cruel

Q: What happened at the Battle of Nájera?

On 3 April 1367 Peter and Edward, Prince of Wales, routed Henry of Trastámara's army between Nájera and Navarrete. Henry escaped, but Bertrand du Guesclin was captured. The battle restored Peter to his throne, but he could not pay the English army, and Henry was back in Castile that August.

Mudéjar ceiling in the palace that Peter I built in the Alcázar of Seville. Photo: Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Quick answer

Who was Peter I of Castile?

Peter I (1334 to 1369) was king of Castile and León from 1350. He fought Aragon and his illegitimate half-brother Henry of Trastámara, and had several relatives killed, so his enemies called him the Cruel and his supporters the Just. Restored by the English at Nájera in 1367, he lost at Montiel in 1369 and was killed by Henry.¹

Peter fought two great battles against Henry: Nájera, which he won on 3 April 1367 alongside Edward, Prince of Wales, and the Battle of Montiel on 14 March 1369, which he lost. Both belonged to a civil war tied to the Hundred Years' War, with English troops on Peter's side and French captains on Henry's.²

How did Peter of Castile become king?

Peter was born in Burgos on 30 August 1334, the only legitimate son of King Alfonso XI and Queen María of Portugal. When his father died in 1350, Peter became king at fifteen. Alfonso also had many children by his mistress Leonor de Guzmán, led by the twins Henry, count of Trastámara, and Fadrique, and they became Peter's rivals.³

Cecilia Devia of the University of Buenos Aires notes that Alfonso had kept his only legitimate son and the boy's mother at a distance, so resistance from his bastards was to be expected. After his death Leonor was taken prisoner to Talavera and killed there: Ayala and Mérimée blame the queen mother, while Froissart repeats a rumor that Peter was behind it. Ayala's chronicle and Mérimée put Peter's birth in 1333.⁴

At first real power lay with the noble Juan Alfonso de Alburquerque, while the young king, in Ayala's words, went hunting with falcons. In June 1353 Peter married the French princess Blanche of Bourbon at Valladolid, a match pressed by Alburquerque, but soon left her for his mistress María de Padilla, whose relatives became his favorites.⁵

In 1354 a league of great nobles, taking up Blanche's cause, met the king at Tejadillo and then held him at Toro. Peter escaped, and by 1356 he had regained his authority.⁶

Who were Peter of Castile's enemies?

Peter was almost always at war. From 1356 he fought Peter IV of Aragon, who sheltered Castilian exiles. His half-brother Henry, who had served the king of France, fought on the Aragonese side, and in 1366 he invaded Castile with foreign companies to take the crown, starting a civil war that ended at Montiel in 1369.⁷

Muslim Granada was sometimes Peter's enemy and sometimes his ally. Devia notes that he fought the Moors while being allied with some of them at times; in the last years of the civil war Granadan troops fought for him.⁸

Why was Peter I called the Cruel?

Because he had many of his own relatives and nobles killed. In 1358 his half-brother Fadrique, master of the Order of Santiago, was murdered on his orders in the Alcázar of Seville, and later Leonor de Guzmán's two youngest sons, Juan and Pedro, were killed in prison. The chronicler Ayala made such killings the center of his portrait.⁹

Ayala says that after Fadrique died the king sat down to eat where the body lay; Mérimée places the meal in a hall a few yards away. Blanche of Bourbon died a prisoner in 1361. Ayala says Peter had her killed after her jailer refused to poison her, and Froissart also blames him, while Mérimée thought a natural death possible.¹⁰

Ayala also left a portrait of the king: tall and fair, with a slight lisp, a tireless falconer who slept little, loved many women and hoarded treasure. Mérimée repeats most of it but argues that Peter valued money only for the power it gave.¹¹

Why was Peter also called the Just?

Supporters called him el Justiciero or el Justo, the Just. Prosper Mérimée argued in 1849 that his severity fell on rebellious nobles, while ordinary people praised a master who demanded the same obedience from rich and poor. Manuel García Fernández of the University of Seville sums up recent research: neither cruel nor just, but a king of his time.¹²

Henry fought him with propaganda too. His side called Peter a tyrant and spread a story that he was not Alfonso's son but the son of a Jew, Pero Gil; Froissart and Mérimée have Henry insulting him as a Jew at their last meeting. In fact Peter protected the Jews as his predecessors had, and his treasurer was the Jewish financier Samuel ha-Leví.¹³

Peter's taste shows in the palace he built in the Alcázar of Seville in the middle of the fourteenth century, in the Mudéjar style, which drew on Islamic art. The Alcázar itself calls it the Mudéjar Palace of Peter I.¹⁴

Hall in Peter of Castile's palace in the Alcázar of Seville with carved stucco walls, horseshoe arches on slim columns, tiled dados and a chandelier, nineteenth century, in black and white — A hall in Peter's palace in the Alcázar of Seville, photographed by J. Laurent in the nineteenth century. Library of Congress. Public domain

Exile and return

In the spring of 1366 Henry entered Castile with companies of mostly French and English men-at-arms, had himself proclaimed king at Calahorra and was crowned at the monastery of Las Huelgas in Burgos. Peter abandoned Burgos and left the kingdom. At Bayonne and Bordeaux he won over Edward, Prince of Wales, the Black Prince, who advanced his soldiers' pay on Peter's promise to repay it.¹⁵

What happened at the Battle of Nájera?

On Saturday 3 April 1367, between Nájera and Navarrete, the army of Peter and the Black Prince routed Henry's. Henry escaped, but the Breton captain Bertrand du Guesclin and many Castilian lords were captured. The victory restored Peter to his throne, but he could not pay the English, and within two years he had lost the war and his life.¹⁶

Ayala counts up to four hundred men-at-arms killed in Henry's vanguard, and Mérimée gives the same loss for Du Guesclin's battalion alone. Peter could not pay what he owed, so the Black Prince took his army back to Aquitaine, and late in September 1367 Henry was back in Castile, entering through Calahorra.¹⁷

How did Peter of Castile die?

Henry killed him. Beaten near Montiel on 14 March 1369, Peter shut himself in the castle. On the night of 23 March he went to Bertrand du Guesclin, who had been offered lands and money to save him, and walked into a trap: Henry struck him in the face with a dagger and, after a struggle, stabbed him to death.¹⁸

The battle itself was short: Henry's army surprised Peter's scattered troops, and his Granadan horsemen gave way at once. Ayala sets the killing in Du Guesclin's lodging and says the brothers fell to the ground together; Froissart sets it in the tent of the Bègue de Villaines and says the Aragonese viscount of Rocaberti turned Peter over so that Henry could strike.¹⁹

Can Ayala's chronicle of Peter be trusted?

Only with care. Pero López de Ayala, whose chronicle is the main source for the reign, later served the Trastámara kings who replaced Peter. Cecilia Devia argues that he turned a legitimate king into a monster and a usurper into an instrument of Providence; Mérimée had already warned that Ayala owed his fortune to Henry and his heirs.²⁰

Henry II founded a new dynasty, the house of Trastámara, which ruled Castile after him.²¹

Notes

A number in the text points to a note; each note names the works that paragraph draws on, listed in full under Sources.

María Sánchez-Pérez, MEAH. Sección Hebreo; Cecilia Devia, “Los regicidios de Zamora y de Montiel en las crónicas castellanas”; Covadonga Valdaliso Casanova, “La primera fase del proceso contra Pedro I de Castilla”; Jean Froissart, Chronicles of England, France, Spain, and the Adjoining Countries. ↩
Pero López de Ayala, Crónica del rey don Pedro; Jean Froissart, Chronicles of England, France, Spain, and the Adjoining Countries; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon; Covadonga Valdaliso Casanova, “La primera fase del proceso contra Pedro I de Castilla”. ↩
Fernán Sánchez de Valladolid, Crónica del rey don Alonso el Onceno; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon; Covadonga Valdaliso Casanova, “La primera fase del proceso contra Pedro I de Castilla”; María Sánchez-Pérez, MEAH. Sección Hebreo; Cecilia Devia, “Los regicidios de Zamora y de Montiel en las crónicas castellanas”. ↩
Cecilia Devia, “Los regicidios de Zamora y de Montiel en las crónicas castellanas”; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon; Covadonga Valdaliso Casanova, “La primera fase del proceso contra Pedro I de Castilla”; Pero López de Ayala, Crónica del rey don Pedro; Jean Froissart, Chronicles of England, France, Spain, and the Adjoining Countries. ↩
Covadonga Valdaliso Casanova, Historia. Instituciones. Documentos; Pero López de Ayala, Crónica del rey don Pedro; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon; Jean Froissart, Chronicles of England, France, Spain, and the Adjoining Countries. ↩
Covadonga Valdaliso Casanova, Historia. Instituciones. Documentos; Pero López de Ayala, Crónica del rey don Pedro; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon. ↩
Pero López de Ayala, Crónica del rey don Pedro; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon; Cecilia Devia, “Los regicidios de Zamora y de Montiel en las crónicas castellanas”; Jean Froissart, Chronicles of England, France, Spain, and the Adjoining Countries; Covadonga Valdaliso Casanova, “La primera fase del proceso contra Pedro I de Castilla”. ↩
Cecilia Devia, “Los regicidios de Zamora y de Montiel en las crónicas castellanas”; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon; Jean Froissart, Chronicles of England, France, Spain, and the Adjoining Countries. ↩
Pero López de Ayala, Crónica del rey don Pedro; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon; Cecilia Devia, “Los regicidios de Zamora y de Montiel en las crónicas castellanas”; María Sánchez-Pérez, MEAH. Sección Hebreo. ↩
Pero López de Ayala, Crónica del rey don Pedro; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon; Jean Froissart, Chronicles of England, France, Spain, and the Adjoining Countries. ↩
Pero López de Ayala, Crónica del rey don Pedro; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon. ↩
María Sánchez-Pérez, MEAH. Sección Hebreo; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon; Manuel García Fernández, El rey don Pedro I y su tiempo. ↩
Covadonga Valdaliso Casanova, “La primera fase del proceso contra Pedro I de Castilla”; Jean Froissart, Chronicles of England, France, Spain, and the Adjoining Countries; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon; María Sánchez-Pérez, MEAH. Sección Hebreo; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon; Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte, “Una nueva mirada a la sinagoga de Samuel ha-Leví”. ↩
Manuel García Fernández, El rey don Pedro I y su tiempo; Real Alcázar de Sevilla, “Historia”. ↩
Covadonga Valdaliso Casanova, “La primera fase del proceso contra Pedro I de Castilla”; Pero López de Ayala, Crónica del rey don Pedro; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon; Jean Froissart, Chronicles of England, France, Spain, and the Adjoining Countries. ↩
Pero López de Ayala, Crónica del rey don Pedro; Jean Froissart, Chronicles of England, France, Spain, and the Adjoining Countries; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon; Covadonga Valdaliso Casanova, “La primera fase del proceso contra Pedro I de Castilla”. ↩
Pero López de Ayala, Crónica del rey don Pedro; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon; Jean Froissart, Chronicles of England, France, Spain, and the Adjoining Countries; Covadonga Valdaliso Casanova, “La primera fase del proceso contra Pedro I de Castilla”. ↩
Pero López de Ayala, Crónica del rey don Pedro; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon; Cecilia Devia, “Los regicidios de Zamora y de Montiel en las crónicas castellanas”; Covadonga Valdaliso Casanova, “La primera fase del proceso contra Pedro I de Castilla”. ↩
Pero López de Ayala, Crónica del rey don Pedro; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon; Jean Froissart, Chronicles of England, France, Spain, and the Adjoining Countries. ↩
María Sánchez-Pérez, MEAH. Sección Hebreo; Covadonga Valdaliso Casanova, “La primera fase del proceso contra Pedro I de Castilla”; Cecilia Devia, “Los regicidios de Zamora y de Montiel en las crónicas castellanas”; Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon. ↩
Cecilia Devia, “Los regicidios de Zamora y de Montiel en las crónicas castellanas”; María Sánchez-Pérez, MEAH. Sección Hebreo. ↩

Sources

María Sánchez-Pérez, MEAH. Sección Hebreo 67 (2018), pp. 87-110, “De la Castilla medieval a la comunidad sefardí de Constantinopla del siglo XIX: dos leyendas de Pedro I” (in Spanish)
Cecilia Devia, Universidad Católica Argentina, Jornadas Internacionales de Literatura Española Medieval, 2011, “Los regicidios de Zamora y de Montiel en las crónicas castellanas” (in Spanish)
Covadonga Valdaliso Casanova, Sociedad Española de Estudios Medievales, “La primera fase del proceso contra Pedro I de Castilla: propaganda antipetrista en un documento inédito de la catedral de Valladolid” (in Spanish)
Jean Froissart, Chronicles of England, France, Spain, and the Adjoining Countries, trans. Thomas Johnes (1855 edition), “Chronicles of England, France, Spain” (Internet Archive)
Pero López de Ayala, Crónica del rey don Pedro, in Crónicas de los reyes de Castilla, vol. 1, ed. Eugenio de Llaguno Amírola (Madrid, 1779), “Crónicas de los reyes de Castilla, 1: Crónica del rey Don Pedro” (in Spanish, Internet Archive)
Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon, vol. 2 (London: Richard Bentley, 1849), “The History of Peter the Cruel, vol. 2” (Internet Archive)
Fernán Sánchez de Valladolid (attributed), Crónica del rey don Alonso el Onceno (1595 printing), chapter on the birth of Prince Pedro, “Crónica del muy esclarecido príncipe y rey don Alonso el Onceno” (in Spanish, Internet Archive)
Prosper Mérimée, The History of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon, vol. 1 (London: Richard Bentley, 1849), “The History of Peter the Cruel, vol. 1” (Internet Archive)
Covadonga Valdaliso Casanova, Historia. Instituciones. Documentos 34 (2007), pp. 293-305, “Privanza y privados en el reinado de Pedro I de Castilla” (in Spanish)
Manuel García Fernández (coord.), El rey don Pedro I y su tiempo (1350-1369) (Sevilla: Editorial Universidad de Sevilla, 2016), publisher’s page with contents and first pages (in Spanish)
Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte, Museo Sefardí, 2023, “Una nueva mirada a la sinagoga de Samuel ha-Leví” (in Spanish, PDF)
Real Alcázar de Sevilla, text by Rafael Valencia, “Historia” (in Spanish)