Ferdinand IV of Castile
Ferdinand IV of Castile, known as “the Summons” (Seville, December 6, 1285 – Jaén, September 7, 1312), was King of Castile between 1295 and 1312.
During his minority, his upbringing and custody of his person were entrusted to his mother, Queen María de Molina, while his guardianship was entrusted to the infant Enrique de Castilla el Senador, son of Fernando III of Castilla. At that time, and also during the rest of her reign, her mother tried to placate the nobility, she faced her son's enemies and prevented Ferdinand IV from being dethroned on several occasions.
He had to face the insubordination of the nobility, led on numerous occasions by his uncle, the infante Juan de Castilla el de Tarifa, and by Juan Núñez II de Lara, who were sometimes supported by Don Juan Manuel, grandson of King Ferdinand III.
Like his predecessors on the throne, Ferdinand IV continued the company of the Reconquista and, although he failed in his attempt to conquer Algeciras in 1309, he seized the city of Gibraltar that same year, and in 1312 he occupied the place Jaén from Alcaudete. During the Courts of Valladolid in 1312, he promoted the reform of the administration of justice and that of all areas of administration, while trying to reinforce the royal authority to the detriment of the noble class.
He died in Jaén on September 7, 1312, at the age of twenty-six, and his mortal remains currently rest in the church of San Hipólito in Córdoba.
King's Descent
He was the son of King Sancho IV of Castile and his wife, Queen María de Molina. On his paternal line he was the grandson of Alfonso X the Wise and Queen Violante of Aragon, daughter of Jaime I of Aragon. On his maternal side he was a grandson of the infante Alfonso de Molina, son of King Alfonso IX of León, and his wife Alfonso de Meneses.
He was the brother, among others, of the Infante Pedro of Castilla, Lord of the Cameros, of the Infante Felipe of Castilla and of Beatriz of Castilla, Queen Consort of Portugal.
Childhood of the Infante Ferdinand (1285-1295)
Infante Fernando was born in the city of Seville on December 6, 1285. He was baptized in the Cathedral of Seville by Archbishop Raimundo de Losana and was immediately proclaimed heir to the Crown and received the homage of the notables of the Kingdom.
His father, the king, entrusted Fernán Pérez Ponce de León with the infant's upbringing, since he had been Alfonso X's chief steward. The infant and his tutor left for the city of Zamora, where the family of the infant's guardian resided. Likewise, the king appointed Isidro González and Alfonso Godínez chancellors of the Infante, while he appointed Samuel de Belorado almojarife of the prince. Fernán Pérez Ponce de León and his wife, Urraca Gutiérrez de Meneses, significantly influenced the formation of the infant's character, and the latter would show them, being already king, deep gratitude.
Already in his childhood the question of the marriage of the infant was raised, being Sancho IV's desire to choose a wife chosen from among the French princesses, or from among the Portuguese, Sancho IV opting for the latter house reigning. In the agreement signed by Sancho IV and King Dionisio I of Portugal in September 1291, the betrothal between the Infante Fernando and the Infanta Constanza of Portugal, daughter of the Portuguese sovereign, who was approximately two years old, was established. However, despite the commitment made with the Lusitanian monarch, in 1294, Sancho IV considered the possibility of marrying his son to the Infanta Blanca, daughter of Philip IV of France. The death of Sancho IV a year later put an end to the negotiations undertaken with the French court.
Ferdinand IV (1295-1301) was a minority
On April 25, 1295, King Sancho IV of Castile died in the city of Toledo, leaving the infant Fernando as heir to the throne. After the king was buried in the Cathedral of Toledo, Queen María de Molina retired to the original Alcázar de Toledo to mourn for nine days. The queen was in charge of tutoring her son, who was only nine years old. Because of Ferdinand IV's illegitimacy, due to the illegal marriage of her parents, the queen had to face numerous problems to ensure that her son remained on the throne.
To the incessant struggles with the Castilian nobility, led by the infante Juan de Castilla el de Tarifa, who claimed the throne from his brother Sancho IV of Castilla, and by the infante Enrique de Castilla el Senador, son of Ferdinand III and Fernando IV's great-uncle, who claimed the king's guardianship, was added to the lawsuit with the Infantes de la Cerda, supported by France and Aragon and by his grandmother Queen Violante of Aragon, widow of Alfonso X. Added to this were the problems with Aragon, Portugal and France, who tried to take advantage of the unstable situation that the Crown of Castile was going through for their own benefit. At the same time, Diego López V de Haro, lord of Vizcaya, Nuño González de Lara and Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor, among many others, sowed confusion and anarchy in the kingdom.
In the Cortes of Valladolid in 1295, the infant Enrique de Castilla the Senator was appointed guardian of the king, but Queen María de Molina achieved through the support of the cities with a vote in Cortes that custody of her son was entrusted to her to her. While the Courts of Valladolid were being held in 1295, the infante Juan left the city of Granada and tried to occupy the city of Badajoz, but, failing in his attempt, he seized Coria and the castle of Alcántara. He then went to the kingdom of Portugal, where he pressured King Dionysius I of Portugal to declare war on the Crown of Castile and, at the same time, to support his claim to the throne.
In the summer of 1295, after the Cortes of Valladolid had finished, the queen and the infant Enrique met in Ciudad Rodrigo with King Don Dionís of Portugal, to whom the queen gave several places located next to the Portuguese border. In the interview in Ciudad Rodrigo it was agreed that Ferdinand IV would marry the Infanta Constanza of Portugal, daughter of the King of Portugal, and that the Infanta Beatriz of Castilla, sister of Ferdinand IV, would marry the Infante Alfonso, heir to the Portuguese throne.. At the same time, Diego López V de Haro's possession of the lordship of Vizcaya was confirmed, and Infante Juan, who momentarily accepted Ferdinand IV as sovereign in private, had his properties immediately restored. Shortly after, Jaime II de Aragon returned the Infanta Isabel of Castilla to the Castilian Court, without having married her, and declared war on the Crown of Castile.
At the beginning of 1296, the infante Juan, who had rebelled against Ferdinand IV, took Astudillo, Paredes de Nava and Dueñas, while his son Alfonso de Valencia took over Mansilla de las Mulas. In April 1296 Alfonso de la Cerda began the invasion of the Crown of Castile supported by Aragonese troops, and went to the city of León, where the infante Juan was proclaimed "king of León, Seville and Galicia". Immediately afterwards, the infante Juan accompanied Alfonso de la Cerda to Sahagún, where he was proclaimed "king of Castilla, Toledo, Córdoba, Murcia and Jaén". Shortly after Alfonso de la Cerda and the Infante Juan were crowned, both surrounded the Valladolid municipality of Mayorga, while the Infante Enrique left for the kingdom of Granada to arrange peace between the Granada monarch and Fernando IV, since the Granadans attacked in At that time throughout Andalusia the king's lands, which were defended, among others, by Alonso Pérez de Guzmán. On August 25, 1296, the Infante Pedro de Aragón died, a victim of the plague, while he was in command of the Aragonese army that besieged the city of Mayorga, thereby losing the Infante Juan one of his supporters. Due to the mortality that spread among Mayorga's besiegers, his commanders were forced to lift the siege.
While the infante Juan and Juan Núñez de Lara the Lesser awaited the arrival of the King of Portugal with his troops to join them at the site they planned to subdue the city of Valladolid, where Queen María de Molina and Fernando were IV, the Aragonese king attacked Murcia and Soria, and King Dionisio of Portugal attacked along the line of the Duero River, while Diego López V de Haro sowed disorder in his lordship of Vizcaya.
Faced with this situation, Queen María de Molina threatened the King of Portugal with breaking the agreements of the previous year if he continued his attacks and his support for the Infante Juan 'el Usurpador' and Alfonso de la Cerda. The sovereign of Portugal, before the threats of María de Molina, and informed that Juan Núñez de Lara the Less refused to besiege Valladolid, as well as that numerous magnates, nobles and prelates deserted the side of the infante Juan, returned together with his troops to Portugal, having previously seized the castles of Castelo Rodrigo, Alfaiates and Sabugal, territories belonging to Sancho de Castilla "el de la Paz", grandson of Alfonso X. Shortly after the withdrawal of the King of Portugal, the infante Juan moved to León and Alfonso de la Cerda returned to the kingdom of Aragon. In October 1296, the troops of María de Molina, seriously ill at the time, surrounded Paredes de Nava, where María Díaz de Haro, wife of the infante Juan, was accompanied by her mother and her son Lope..
When the Infante Enrique de Castilla the Senator, who was conferring with the King of Granada, learned that the Aragonese and the Portuguese had abandoned the Crown of Castile, and that the Queen was besieging Paredes de Nava, he decided return to Castile, fearing that they would deprive him of the position of tutor to King Ferdinand. However, pressured by Alonso Pérez de Guzmán and other knights, before starting the return, he attacked the Granadans, who at that time had attacked the Castilians again. Four leagues from Arjona, a battle began with the Granadans, in which the infant Enrique would have lost his life if Alonso Pérez de Guzmán had not saved him, since the Castilian and Leonese defeat was complete, and the Christian camp was looted. On his return to Castile, the Infante Enrique de Castilla persuaded some knights and managed to lift the siege to which Paredes de Nava was subjected, despite the opposition of the queen, who returned to Valladolid in January 1297 without having taken Square.
In 1297, during the Cortes de Cuéllar of 1297, summoned by Queen María de Molina, the infant Enrique pressed for the return of the Plaza de Tarifa to the King of Granada, unable to achieve his objective due to the opposition of María de Molina. In these Cortes, the infant Enrique managed to have the castle of Alarcón delivered to his nephew Don Juan Manuel in compensation for having taken the town of Elche from him by the Aragonese, despite the opposition of the queen, who did not want to set such precedents among the Castilian and Leonese nobles and magnates. Shortly before the signing of the Treaty of Alcañices, Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor, who supported Alfonso de la Cerda and the infante Juan, was besieged in Ampudia, although he was able to escape from the siege.
The Treaty of Alcañices (1297)
In 1296, Queen María de Molina had threatened the King of Portugal with breaking the agreements of the previous year if his attacks on Castilian territory persisted, before which Dionisio I of Portugal agreed to return together with his troops to Portugal.
Through the Treaty of Alcañices, the borders between Castile and Portugal were established, among other points, which received a series of strongholds and towns in exchange for breaking their agreements with Jaime II of Aragon, with Alfonso de la Cerda, with the infante Juan, and with Juan Núñez de Lara the Less.
At the same time, in the Treaty of Alcañices the projected link between Fernando IV and the Infanta Constanza of Portugal, daughter of the Lusitanian monarch, was confirmed again, while the betrothal between the Infante Alfonso of Portugal, heir to the Lusitanian throne, and the Infanta Beatriz, sister of Fernando IV. On the other hand, the Portuguese monarch contributed an army of three hundred knights, placed under the command of Juan Alfonso de Alburquerque, to help Queen María de Molina in her fight against the infante Juan who until then had received the support of King Dionisio I from Portugal.
In addition, it was stipulated in the treaty that the towns and squares of Campomayor, Olivenza, Ouguela and San Felices de los Gallegos would be delivered to Dionisio de Portugal as compensation for the loss by Portugal, during the reign of Alfonso III of Portugal, from a series of places that were taken from it by Alfonso X the Wise. At the same time, the squares of Almeida, Castelo Bom, Castelo Melhor, Castelo Rodrigo, Monforte, Sabugal, Sastres and Vilar Maior were handed over to the Portuguese king. The Castilian and Portuguese monarchs renounced mutually raising territorial claims in the future, and the prelates of the two kingdoms agreed on September 13, 1297 to support each other and defend themselves against possible claims, by other estates, to take away their liberties or privileges.. The treaty was ratified not only by the two monarchs of both kingdoms, but also by an abundant representation of the noble and ecclesiastical arms of both kingdoms, as well as by the Brotherhood of the councils of Castile and by its equivalent from the Kingdom of León. In the long term, the consequences of this treaty were lasting, since the border between the two kingdoms was barely modified in the course of the following centuries, thus becoming one of the longest-lasting borders on the European continent.
On the other hand, the Treaty of Alcañices helped to ensure the position on the throne of Fernando IV of Castile, insecure due to internal and external discord, and allowed Queen María de Molina to extend her freedom of movement by not There were already disputes with the Portuguese sovereign, who had come to support her in her fight against the Infante Juan, who, at that time, was still controlling the Leonese territory.
Last stage of minority (1297-1301)
At the end of 1297, the queen sent Alonso Pérez de Guzmán to the kingdom of León to fight the infante Juan, who continued to control the territory of León. At the beginning of 1298, Alfonso de la Cerda and the infante Juan, supported by Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor, they began to mint counterfeit currency, since it contained less metal than it should have, with the purpose of destabilizing the economy. In 1298 the city of Sigüenza fell into the hands of Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor, but he had to evacuate it shortly after due to the resistance of the defenders and, shortly after, they fell into the hands of the Castilian magnate Almazán, who became the stronghold of Alfonso de la Cerda, and Deza, also being returned to Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor el Albarracín by King James II of Aragon. In the Courts of Valladolid in 1298, the infant Enrique again advised the sale of the city of Tarifa to the Muslims, Queen María de Molina opposing it.
Queen María de Molina met in 1298 with the King of Portugal in Toro, and requested that he help her in the fight against the Infante Juan. However, the Portuguese sovereign refused to attack the infant and, in common agreement with the infant Enrique, both planned for Fernando IV to reach a peace agreement with the infant Juan, the latter retaining the kingdom of Galicia, the city of León, and all the places that he had conquered during his life. However, all those territories would pass to the death of him to be of Fernando IV of Castile. However, Queen María de Molina, who was opposed to the project of handing over these territories to the infante Juan, bribed the infante Enrique, to whom she handed over Écija, Roa and Medellín so that the project would not go ahead, at the same time achieving that the representatives of the councils publicly reject the project of the Portuguese sovereign.
After the interview with the Lusitanian monarch in 1298, the queen sent her son, the seven-year-old infante Felipe de Castilla, to the kingdom of Galicia, with the purpose of reinforcing the royal authority in that area, in which Juan Alfonso de Albuquerque and Fernando Rodríguez de Castro, lord of Lemos and Sarria, sowed disorder. In the month of April 1299, once the Cortes of Valladolid of that year had ended, the queen recovered the castles of Monzón and Becerril de Campos, which were in the hands of supporters of Alfonso de la Cerda. In 1299 Juan Alfonso de Haro, Lord of the Cameros, captured Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor, a supporter of Alfonso de la Cerda. Meanwhile, the queen ordered the sending of troops to help Lorca, besieged by the king of Aragon, while, in August of the same year, the troops of the Castilian king surrounded Palenzuela. Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor was released in 1299 on condition that his sister Juana Núñez de Lara marry the infant Enrique "the Senator", that he pay homage to King Ferdinand IV and promise not to make war against him, and on the condition that he returned to the Crown the squares of Osma, Palenzuela, Amaya, Dueñas, which was granted to the infant Enrique, Ampudia, Tordehumos, which was given to Diego López V de Haro, la Mota, and Lerma.
In March 1300, Queen María de Molina met with Dionisio I of Portugal in Ciudad Rodrigo, where the Portuguese sovereign requested funds to be able to pay the cost of the marriage dispensations that the pope would have to grant, so that carried out the marriage links between Fernando IV and Constanza of Portugal, and those of the Infanta Beatriz of Castilla with the Infante Alfonso of Portugal. In the Cortes of Valladolid in 1300, María de Molina, imposing her will on the Cortes, managed to gather the necessary amount of money with which to be able to persuade Pope Boniface VIII so that he issued the bull that legitimized the marriage of the late Sancho IV of Castile. with Maria de Molina.
During the Courts of Valladolid in 1300, the infante Juan renounced his claims to the throne, and took a public oath of allegiance to Ferdinand IV and his successors, on June 26, 1300. In exchange for his resignation of possession of the Señorío de Vizcaya, whose possession was confirmed to Diego López V de Haro, María Díaz de Haro and her husband, the infante Juan, received Mansilla de las Mulas, Paredes de Nava, Medina de Rioseco, Castronuño and Cabreros. Shortly after, María de Molina and the infants Enrique and Juan, accompanied by Diego López V de Haro, besieged the town of Almazán, but lifted the siege due to the opposition of the infant Enrique.>
In 1301 Jaime II of Aragon besieged the town of Lorca, belonging to Don Juan Manuel, who handed over the town to the Aragonese monarch, at the same time as María de Molina, with the purpose of amortizing the disbursement made to provide an army with the to free the town from the Aragonese siege, he ordered the siege of the castles of Alcalá and Mula, and then besieged the city of Murcia, where Jaime II was, who could have been captured by the Castilian and Leonese troops, if he had not been warned by the infants Enrique and Juan, who were fearful of a complete defeat of the Aragonese sovereign, since both wanted to maintain good relations with him.
In the Courts of Burgos in 1301, the subsidies demanded by the Crown were approved to finance the war against the kingdom of Aragon, against the kingdom of Granada, and against Alfonso de la Cerda, at the same time that subsidies were granted to obtain the legitimization of the marriage of the queen with Sancho IV, subsequently sending 10,000 silver marks to the Pope for this purpose, despite the famine that devastated the kingdoms of the Crown of Castile.
In the month of June 1301, during the Cortes de Zamora of 1301, the infante Juan and the rich men of Léon, Galicia and Asturias, mostly supporters of the infante Juan, approved the subsidies demanded by the Crown.
Reign of Ferdinand IV (1301-1312)
In November 1301, while the court was in the city of Burgos, the bull by which Pope Bonifacio VIII legitimized the marriage of Queen María de Molina with the late King Sancho IV was made public, thus being their legitimate children from from that moment. At the same time, Ferdinand IV's coming of age was declared. With this, the infante Juan de Castilla and the infantes de la Cerda lost one of their main arguments when it came to claiming the throne, not being able to claim the illegitimacy of the Castilian monarch from now on. The pontifical dispensation that allowed the celebration of the marriage of Ferdinand IV with Constanza of Portugal was also received.
The infant Enrique, annoyed by the legitimization of Ferdinand IV by Pope Boniface VIII, allied with Juan Núñez de Lara the Lesser in order to upset and antagonize Ferdinand IV with his mother, Queen María de Molina. Both magnates were joined by the Infante Juan de Castilla, who continued to claim the lordship of Vizcaya in the name of his wife, María Díaz de Haro.
In 1301, while the queen was in Vitoria with the infant Enrique responding to the complaints presented by the kingdom of Navarre in relation to the Castilian attacks on their lands, the infant Juan and Juan Núñez de Lara the Less upset the king with his mother and they sought their entertainment in the lands of León through hunting, which the king had been fond of since his childhood. While the queen was in Vitoria, the Aragonese nobles revolted against her king offered her support to get Jaime II of Aragon to return to Castile the places that he had seized in the kingdom of Murcia. That same year the infant Enrique, allied with Diego López V de Haro, claimed King Fernando IV, in compensation for abandoning the position of tutor of the king, and having previously blackmailed the queen by declaring war on her son if they did not agree to his desires, the possession of the towns of Atienza and San Esteban de Gormaz, which were granted to him by the king.
On January 23, 1302, Ferdinand IV married Constanza of Portugal, daughter of King Dionisio I of Portugal, in Valladolid. In the Courts of Medina del Campo in 1302, held in the month of May of that year, the infants Enrique and Juan and Juan Núñez II de Lara tried to upset the king with his mother, accusing her of having given away the jewels that Sancho IV had given her., and later, when the falsity of said accusation was demonstrated, they accused her of having appropriated the subsidies granted to the Crown in the Cortes of previous years, an accusation that was demonstrated to be false when Nuño, abbot of Santander and chancellor of the queen reviewed and made public the statement of accounts of the queen, who not only had not appropriated the funds of the Crown, but had contributed with her own income to the support of the monarchy. While the Courts of Medina del Campo were being held in 1302, to which a representation of the Kingdom of Castile attended, King Muhammad II of Granada died and was succeeded on the throne by his son, Muhammad III of Granada, who attacked the Crown of Castilla and conquered the municipality of Bedmar.
In July 1302 Ferdinand IV attended the Cortes of Burgos in 1302 together with his mother, with whom he had reestablished good relations, and with the infant Enrique de Castilla the Senator. Fernando IV, despite being under the influence of his private Samuel de Belorado, of Jewish origin, who was trying to separate the king from his mother, had decided to dispense with the presence of the infante Juan and Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor in the Cortes from Burgos. After the Cortes, the king went to the city of Palencia, where the marriage of Alfonso de Valencia, son of the infante Juan de Castilla, with Teresa Núñez de Lara y Haro, daughter of Juan Núñez I de Lara, and sister of Juan Núñez de Lara the Less.
At that time the rivalry between the Infante Enrique de Castilla the Senator, María de Molina and Diego López V de Haro on one side, and the Infante Juan de Castilla and Juan Núñez de Lara the Lesser on the other, was accentuated. The infant Enrique threatened the queen with declaring war on Ferdinand IV and on herself if her demands were not granted, while the magnates tried to eliminate the influence that María de Molina had on her son, whom the people began to leave behind. to estimate, due to the influence that the rich men exerted on him. In the final months of 1302, the queen, who was in Valladolid, was forced to appease the wealthy men and members of the nobility, who planned to take up arms against Ferdinand IV, who spent Christmas 1302 on kingdom land. de León, accompanied by the infante Juan and by Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor.
At the beginning of 1303 there was an interview scheduled between King Dionysius I of Portugal and Ferdinand IV, the latter trusting that his cousin the King of Portugal would return some territories to him. For their part, the Infante Enrique de Castilla the Senator, Diego López V de Haro and Queen María de Molina excused themselves from attending said interview. The Queen's purpose in refusing to attend was to keep an eye on the Infante Enrique and the Lord of Vizcaya, whose relations with Fernando IV were tense due to the friendship that the monarch extended to the Infante Juan and Juan Núñez de Lara the Less. In May 1303 the interview between Dionisio I of Portugal and Fernando IV was held in the city of Badajoz. The Infante Juan and Juan Núñez de Lara the Lesser predisposed Fernando IV against the Infante Enrique and the Lord of Vizcaya, as well as the concessions offered by the Portuguese sovereign, who offered to help him if necessary against the Infante Enrique of Castile the Senator, they disappointed Fernando IV.
Views of Ariza and death of the infant Enrique de Castilla "the Senator" (1303)
In 1303, while the king was in Badajoz, the infant Enrique, Diego López V de Haro and don Juan Manuel met in Roa, and agreed that don Juan Manuel would meet with the king of Aragon. The latter agreed with Don Juan Manuel that the three magnates and himself should meet on the day of San Juan Bautista in the municipality of Ariza. Later, the infant Enrique communicated his plans to María de Molina, who was in Valladolid, with the purpose that she join them. The plan of the Infante Enrique consisted of Alfonso de la Cerda becoming King of León and marrying the Infanta Isabel, daughter of María de Molina, while the Infante Pedro de Castilla, brother of Fernando IV, would be proclaimed King. of Castile and would marry a daughter of Jaime II of Aragon. The infant Enrique stated that his intention was to achieve peace in the kingdom and eliminate the influence of the infant Juan and Juan Núñez de Lara the Less.
This plan, which would have meant the disintegration of the territories of the Crown of Castile, as well as the forced or forced resignation of Ferdinand IV, was rejected by Queen María de Molina, who refused to second the plan. project and to meet with the Aragonese sovereign in Ariza. Fernando IV, meanwhile, begged his mother to put peace between him and the magnates who supported the infant Enrique, who again begged the queen to support the infant's plan, which she refused. While the Views of Ariza were being held, the queen reminded the infant Enrique and his companions of the loyalty they owed to her son, as well as the large inheritances with which she had endowed them, thus getting some knights to leave Ariza, without seconding the plan of the infant Enrique. However, the Infante Enrique, Don Juan Manuel and other knights pledged to wage war on King Ferdinand IV, as well as to return the kingdom of Murcia to the kingdom of Aragon, and the kingdom of Jaén to be handed over to Alfonso de la Cerda. However, while Queen María de Molina was meeting the Councils and hindering the purposes of the Infante Enrique de Castilla the Senator, he became seriously ill and had to be transferred to his town in Roa. Faced with the illness of the infant Enrique, the queen, fearful that his lordships and castles would become the property of Don Juan Manuel and Lope Díaz de Haro, to whom the infant planned to bequeath his possessions upon his death, persuaded the infant's confessor, thus as well as his companions, to convince him that his assets would revert to the Crown upon his death, to which the infante refused, since he did not want his assets to pass into the hands of Fernando IV.
When Don Juan Manuel, the nephew of Infante Enrique, arrived in Roa, he found him speechless and, taking him for dead, he appropriated all the valuable objects that were there, as reported in the Chronicle of Fernando IV:
And he saw D. Henry fail him without fab, and when he was dead, he took him as he failed in the house, silver and beasts and letters that he had. whites of the king's seal, and went out out of the villa, and washed with him quanto, and failed D. Henry, and went to Peñafiel, which was desist D. John Manuel.
The queen then sent orders to all the fortresses of the dying infant, in which it was provided that if the infant Enrique died, they would not hand over the castles but to the troops of the king, to whom they belonged. On August 8, 1303, the infant Enrique died, being buried in the disappeared Monastery of San Francisco de Valladolid. His vassals gave little sign of mourning for him and, when the queen learned of it, ordered that a brocade cloth be placed on the coffin, as well as that all the clergy and nobles present in Valladolid attend the funerals.
While the infant Enrique was dying, Fernando IV made a pact with King Muhammad III of Granada, in which it was stipulated that the Granadan sovereign would keep Alcaudete, Quesada and Bedmar, while Fernando IV would keep the plaza of Tarifa. The Nasrid sovereign declared himself a vassal of Fernando IV and promised to pay him the corresponding pariahs. Upon learning that the infant Enrique had died, Fernando IV was pleased and granted the majority of his lands to Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor, to whom he also granted the position of Major Adelantado of the Andalusian border, and to the men who were with him, while returning Écija to María de Molina, for having been hers before she gave it to the infant Enrique. In November 1303, the king was in Valladolid with the queen, and requested his advice, since he wanted to put an end to the lawsuit between the infante Juan de Castilla & # 34;el de Tarifa & # 34; and Diego López V de Haro for possession of the lordship of Vizcaya, which at that time was owned by Diego López V de Haro. The queen told him that she would help him resolve the lawsuit, while the king made important donations, since the good relations between the king and his mother had been fully restored.
In January 1304, while the king was in Carrión de los Condes, the infante Juan claimed again, in the name of his wife, and supported by Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor, the dominion of Vizcaya, although the monarch in a At first, he decided that the prince's wife would be satisfied with receiving Paredes de Nava and Villalón de Campos as compensation, to which the prince Juan refused, arguing that his wife would not accept it because she disagreed with the previous agreements established by her husband. in relation to the lordship. In view of the situation, the king proposed that Diego López V de Haro hand over to María Díaz de Haro, in exchange for the lordship of Vizcaya, Tordehumos, Íscar, Santa Olalla, in addition to his possessions in Cuéllar, Córdoba, Murcia, Valdetorio, and the lordship of Valdecorneja. On his part, Diego López V de Haro would retain the dominion of Vizcaya, Orduña, Valmaseda, Las Encartaciones, and Durango. The infante Juan accepted the king's offer, so the latter called Diego López V de Haro to Carrión de los Condes. However, the Lord of Vizcaya did not accept the sovereign's proposal and threatened him with rebellion before leaving. The king then made his mother reconcile with Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor, at the same time that the maneuvers prior to the Arbitral Judgment of Torrellas, initialed in 1304, began, in which Diego López V de Haro did not take part, because he was enmisted with Fernando IV, who promised to give the Infante Juan the lordship of Biscay, and to Juan Núñez de Lara the Less the Bureba and the possessions of Diego López de Haro in La Rioja, if both resolved the diplomatic negotiations with Aragon to the satisfaction of the monarch.
In April 1304, the Infante Juan began negotiations with the kingdom of Aragon, committing Ferdinand IV to accept the decisions established by the arbitrators of the kingdoms of Portugal and Aragon, who would meet in the following months, regarding the demands of Alfonso de la Cerda and regarding his disputes with the kingdom of Aragon. At the same time, the king confiscated the lands of Diego López V de Haro and Juan Alfonso de Haro, Lord of the Cameros, and distributed them among the wealthy men. Despite this, both magnates did not rise up against the king.
Meanwhile, in Galicia, the infante Felipe de Castilla, brother of Fernando IV, defeated his brother-in-law Fernando Rodríguez de Castro in a battle, who lost his life in said battle.
The Arbitration Award of Torrellas (1304)
One of the most important events of the reign of Ferdinand IV, once he reached his majority, was the border agreement established with Jaime II of Aragon in 1304, and known in history as the Torrellas Arbitration Judgment. The agreement also attempted to put an end to the claims of Alfonso de la Cerda, pretender to the Castilian-Leonese throne.
On August 8, 1304, in the Zaragoza town of Torrellas, King Dionisio I of Portugal, the Archbishop of Zaragoza, Jimeno de Luna, representing the Kingdom of Aragon, and the Infante Juan de Castilla el de Tarifa, representing Castilla, made public the clauses of the Torrellas Arbitration Award. The purpose of the negotiation was to put an end to the existing disputes between the Crown of Castile and the kingdom of Aragon regarding the possession of the Kingdom of Murcia. Muhammad III of Granada participated in the talks at the request of Fernando IV, who ordered that the King of Granada intervene in the peace and alliance treaty between the Christian kingdoms of the peninsula, since he was interested in preserving friendship, submission and pariahs that each year the Granada monarch was forced to pay the King of Castile, and that they constituted a precious resource for the Crown of Castile. For this reason, Jaime II of Aragon and King Dionisio I of Portugal agreed to maintain good relations with the King of Granada.
According to the provisions of the Judgment, the kingdom of Murcia, which was then in the hands of Jaime II of Aragon, would be divided between the Crowns of Aragon and Castile, and the southern border of Murcia would be established along the Segura river. Aragon. The cities of Alicante, Elche, Orihuela, Novelda, and Elda, and also the towns of Abanilla, Petrel, Crevillente, and Sax, would continue in the hands of the Aragonese monarch. The Arbitration Award recognized the possession by the Crown of Castilla y León of the cities of Murcia, Monteagudo, Alhama, Lorca and Molina de Segura. The citizens affected by the change of sovereignty would be free to remain in their cities and towns if they wished, or they could freely leave the territory. At the same time, the two kingdoms agreed to grant freedom to the prisoners of war, as well as to be enemies of each other's enemies, excepting the Holy See and the Kingdom of France. The lordship of Villena continued to be the property of Don Juan Manuel, son of the Infante Manuel de Castilla and grandson of Fernando III, but the lands on which he settled would remain under Aragonese sovereignty.
On August 8, 1304, the Kings of Portugal and Aragon ruled, in the presence of the Infante Juan of Castilla, on the claims of the Infantes de la Cerda. Alfonso de la Cerda, supported by Jaime II of Aragon, was granted as compensation for his resignation from the throne of Castile a series of lordships and possessions, scattered throughout the Castilian-Leonese territory in order to avoid the formation of a microstate, among which were those of Alba de Tormes, Valdecorneja, Gibraleón, Béjar and Real de Manzanares, as well as the castle of Monzón de Campos, Gatón de Campos, La Algaba, and Lemos. In addition, Alfonso de la Cerda was granted numerous incomes and possessions in Medina del Campo, Córdoba, Toledo, Bonilla and Madrid. Fernando IV of Castilla, who wanted his relative Alfonso de la Cerda to enjoy an annual income of 400,000 maravedíes, ordered that if the income from the possessions that had been donated to him did not reach that amount, he would give him other territories until the income reached said amount. figure. At the same time, it was established that, as proof that the Castilian monarch would hand over said lordships to Alfonso de la Cerda, the castles of Alfaro, Cervera, Curiel de los Ajos and Gumiel would be handed over to four wealthy men for thirty years.
For his part, Alfonso de la Cerda renounced his rights to the throne, to use the royal titles, and to use the royal seal. At the same time, he promised to return to the king the squares of Almazán, Soria, Deza, Serón, Alcalá, and Almenara. However, shortly after he returned to use the symbols of royalty, contrary to what was agreed in Torrellas. The question of Alfonso de la Cerda's rights to the throne was definitively resolved during the lifetime of Ferdinand IV's son and successor, Alfonso XI, when in 1331, in Burguillos, Alfonso de la Cerda paid homage to the King of Castilla y León. In this way, the problem originated in 1275 on the death of the infante Fernando de la Cerda, father of Alfonso de la Cerda and son and heir of Alfonso X, whose rights to the throne had been ignored by Sancho IV, father of Fernando IV of Castile, was resolved..
Fernando IV promised that the clauses of the Arbitral Award should be sworn to and abided by by rich men, magnates, the Masters of the Military Orders of Santiago, Calatrava, Temple and Hospital, and by the councils of their kingdoms. In the winter of 1305, when Fernando IV was in the city of Guadalajara, the monarch received the homage of his cousin Fernando de la Cerda, who was acting on behalf of his brother, Alfonso de la Cerda. The latter stated through his brother that he had received the castles and estates that were awarded to him in the Arbitration Judgment of Torrellas, and paid homage to Fernando IV for the first time.
In January 1305, while the King, María de Molina, the Infante Juan de Castilla, Don Juan Manuel, Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor, Diego López V de Haro and Juan Alfonso de Haro, were in Guadalajara, Fernando IV requested again to Diego López V de Haro to return the lordship of Vizcaya to María Díaz de Haro, to which the lord of Vizcaya did not agree.
The Treaty of Elche (1305)
In order to solve the inconveniences derived from the distribution of the Murcian territory, and other minor issues, it was agreed to meet Fernando IV and Jaime II of Aragón in the monastery of Santa María de Huerta, located in the province of Soria.
This interview took place on February 26, 1305, and was attended by the Kings of Castile and Aragon, the Infante Juan de Castilla el de Tarifa, Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor, Don Juan Manuel, Violante Manuel and her husband the infante Alfonso of Portugal, the archbishop of Toledo and the bishops of Sigüenza and Porto, among others. In exchange for ceding the lordships of Elda and Novelda, which would become the kingdom of Aragon, Violante Manuel, Don Juan Manuel's sister, received the lordships of Arroyo del Puerco and Medellín from Fernando IV of Castilla, who At the same time, he ceded to Don Juan Manuel the manor and the Castle of Alarcón as compensation for his resignation of possession of Elche. Don Juan Manuel took possession of the town of Alarcón on March 25, 1305.
For his part, Jaime II of Aragon, despite Ferdinand IV's insistence, refused to hand over the lordship of Albarracín to Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor, who blamed it on the scant influence exerted by his until then ally, the infante Juan de Castilla "el de Tarifa", from whom he began to distance himself. On the other hand, Fernando IV and Jaime II granted powers to Diego García de Toledo, chancellor of the seal of Purity, and Gonzalo García, advisor to the Aragonese monarch, respectively, so that both characters concluded the distribution of the Kingdom of Murcia between them. kingdoms, as provided by the Torrellas Arbitration Judgment.
Finally, the delegates of both monarchs reached an agreement that was embodied in the Treaty of Elche, signed on May 19, 1305, and in which the border of the Kingdom of Murcia was definitively established, which had been divided between Castile and Aragon. The dividing line between the two kingdoms was established between Pechin and Almansa, belonging to Fernando IV, and Caudete, which would correspond to Aragon. The dividing line established between the two kingdoms in the territory of Murcia would follow the course of the Segura river from Cieza, with Castilla owning Murcia, Molina de Segura and Blanca, as well as the city of Cartagena, which Jaime II renounced for being located too far south of the Segura river, and which came to belong definitively to the Crown of Castile. However, the transfer of the city of Cartagena to Castile was carried out on the condition that Fernando IV respected the property of Don Juan Manuel over the lordship of Alarcón, to which King Fernando did not oppose. At the same time, in the treaty of Elche it was established that the municipality of Yecla would continue in the power of don Juan Manuel, and its jurisdiction would correspond to Castilla.
The partition of the kingdom of Murcia, in which the historical links of the region were not taken into account, meant that the northern and eastern part would correspond to the kingdom of Valencia, within the Crown of Aragon, which sought to assimilate it immediately to the rest of their domains, while the southern and western part of the kingdom, including Cartagena and the city of Murcia itself, passed into Castilian hands definitively, constituting the kingdom of Murcia.
Conflicts over possession of the lordship of Vizcaya (1305-1307)
In 1305 Diego López V de Haro was called to appear in the Courts of Medina del Campo in 1305, although he did not attend until after being called several times, to respond to the demands of María Díaz de Haro, who claimed, using from the influence of her husband, the infante Juan, the possession of the lordship of Vizcaya.
In the absence of the lord of Vizcaya, the infante Juan filed a lawsuit against him before Fernando IV, committing himself to prove that the lordship of Vizcaya was illegally occupied by Sancho IV of Castile, which is why it now belonged to Diego López V de Haro, blood uncle of María Díaz de Haro. However, while the Infante Juan was presenting the evidence to the king's representatives, Diego López V de Haro appeared, accompanied by three hundred knights. The Lord of Vizcaya refused to renounce his lordship, arguing that the prince and his wife had renounced it, through a solemn oath, taken in the year 1300.
Failed to reach an agreement, due to the arguments presented by both parties, Diego López V de Haro returned to his lordship, despite the fact that the Cortes of Medina del Campo had not yet ended, which ended in mid-June of 1305. In the middle of 1305, being the court in the city of Burgos, and while Diego López V de Haro proposed to appeal to the Pope, due to the solemn oath of resignation to the lordship made by the infante Juan and his wife in 1300, the The king offered María Díaz de Haro the possession of several cities of the lordship of Vizcaya, among them San Sebastián, Salvatierra, Fuenterrabía and Guipúzcoa, to which she did not agree, because she was advised by Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor, who was at loggerheads. with her husband, despite the child's pressures. Shortly after, the infante Juan and Diego López V de Haro signed a truce, valid for two years, during which the king trusted that Diego López de Haro would break his alliance with Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor. Later, during Christmas of 1305, Fernando IV met with Diego López V de Haro in Valladolid, who came accompanied by Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor, whom the king, since he was at enmity with him, made him leave the city, because He wanted the Lord of Vizcaya to break his alliance with him, although he did not succeed, since Diego López V de Haro was convinced that the infante Juan would not give up his claims.
At the beginning of 1306, Lope Díaz de Haro, son and heir of Diego López V de Haro, was at odds with Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor and tried to persuade his father to accept the solution proposed by the king. That same year, the king gave the position of Majordomo to Lope Díaz de Haro, his father having an interview shortly after with the king, and attending the interview accompanied by Juan Núñez de Lara the Lesser, despite the anger that this caused the king. monarch. During the interview, Diego López V de Haro tried to reconcile Juan Núñez de Lara with the sovereign, while the latter tried to get his interlocutor to break off relations with whom he defended. Persuaded by Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor, the lord of Vizcaya left without saying goodbye to the king, while ambassadors from the kingdom of France arrived, requesting an alliance between the two countries, and also asking for the hand of the infanta Isabel de Castilla, sister of Ferdinand IV.
In April 1306, the infante Juan, despite the opposition of Queen María de Molina, induced the king to declare war on Juan Núñez de Lara the Lesser, knowing that Diego López V de Haro would defend him, and advised the sovereign to besiege Aranda de Duero, where Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor was, who, in view of the situation, broke his vassal bond with the king. After a pitched battle, Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor managed to escape from the siege to which Aranda de Duero was intended to be subjected, and met with Diego López V de Haro and the son of the latter, and they agreed to wage war against King Fernando IV separately, and each in its territory. The king's hosts demanded concessions from the monarch, who had to grant them despite the fact that they were not diligent in waging war, so the sovereign ordered the infante Juan to enter into negotiations with Diego López V de Haro and his supporters, along that the infante Juan agreed, since his vassals were not in favor of the war either.
Negotiations did not start and the war continued, despite the fact that the Infante Juan advised the sovereign to sign peace if it was viable. The sovereign requested the intervention of his mother, who, after negotiations with the rebels through Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, achieved in a meeting held with them in Pancorbo, that the three rebellious magnates grant castles as hostages to the king, the that they should pay homage, conserving their properties, while the king promised to pay them his soldiers. The agreement did not satisfy the infante Juan, who returned to claim possession of the lordship of Vizcaya from the king in the name of his wife, while Fernando IV, with the purpose of pleasing the infante, seized the merindad of Galicia from his brother the infante Felipe de Castilla, and granted it to Diego García de Toledo, deprived of the infante Juan.
Fernando IV, eager to please his uncle the Infante Juan, sent Alonso Pérez de Guzmán and Juan Núñez de Lara the Lesser to parley with Diego López V de Haro, who refused to cede the lordship of Vizcaya to the Infante and to his wife, Maria II Diaz de Haro. When the Infante Juan learned of this, he summoned Don Juan Manuel and his vassals to support him in his claims, while the King and Queen María de Molina parleyed with Juan Núñez de Lara the Less to persuade the lord of Vizcaya to return the lordship. In September 1306 the king met Diego López V de Haro in Burgos. The sovereign proposed that as long as he lived he could retain ownership of the lordship of Vizcaya, but that, upon his death, the lordship should be handed over to María II Díaz de Haro, with the exception of the municipalities of Orduña and Valmaseda, which would be delivered to Lope Díaz de Haro, his son. However, the proposal was not accepted by Diego López V de Haro, whom, in view of his obstinacy, the king once again tried to make enemies of Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor. Shortly after, the Lord of Vizcaya again appealed to the Pope.
At the beginning of 1307, while the King, Queen María de Molina, and the Infante Juan Alfonso de Borgoña were on their way to Valladolid, they learned that Pope Clement V recognized the validity of the oath sworn by the Infante Juan and by his wife in 1300 to renounce the lordship of Vizcaya, so the prince should abide by it, or else respond to the lawsuit filed against him by the lord of Vizcaya. In February 1307, an attempt was made to resolve the dispute over the lordship of Vizcaya, agreeing that Diego López V de Haro would retain ownership of the lordship of Vizcaya as long as he lived, but that upon his death, the lordship would become María Díaz de Haro, with the exception of Orduña and Valmaseda, which would be delivered to Lope Díaz de Haro, his son, who would also receive Miranda and Villalba de Losa from the king. However, the agreement was not accepted by the Lord of Vizcaya. Shortly after Cortes were convened in the city of Valladolid.
In the Cortes of Valladolid in 1307, when María de Molina saw that the wealthy men, led by the infante Juan, were protesting against the measures adopted by the king's privates, she tried, to please the infante, to put an end to the existing lawsuit over the lordship of Biscay For this, the queen had the collaboration of her half-sister Juana Alfonso de Molina, who persuaded her daughter María Díaz de Haro to accept the agreement proposed by the king in February of that same year. Diego López V de Haro and his son Lope Díaz de Haro agreed to sign the agreement, which established that Diego López V de Haro would retain ownership of the lordship of Vizcaya for as long as he lived, but that upon his death, the The lordship would become María II Díaz de Haro, with the exception of Orduña and Valmaseda, which would be given to Lope Díaz de Haro, his son, who would also receive Miranda and Villalba de Losa from Fernando IV.
Given the agreement reached regarding the possession of the lordship of Vizcaya, Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor felt slighted by the king and his mother, for which reason he withdrew from the Cortes, before they had finished. For this reason, the king granted the position of majordomo to Diego López V de Haro, which caused the infante Juan to leave the court, warning the king that he would not count on his help until the governors of the castles of Diego López de Haro pay homage to his wife, María Díaz de Haro. However, shortly afterward they met in Lerma, where María Díaz de Haro, the Infante Juan, Juan Núñez de Lara the Less, Diego López V de Haro, and Lope Díaz de Haro, son of the latter, agreed to pay homage. in Vizcaya as future lady to María Díaz de Haro, while the same was done in the castles that Lope Díaz de Haro would receive.
Internal conflicts in Castile and Vistas de Grijota (1307-1308)
In 1307, on the advice of the infante Juan and Diego López V de Haro, both already reconciled, the king ordered Juan Núñez de Lara the Lesser to abandon the kingdom of Castile and to return the castles of Moya and Cañete, located in the province of Cuenca, and that the king had granted him in the past. The king went to Palencia, where his mother was, who advised him that, since she had expelled Juan Núñez de Lara from the kingdom, if he wanted to retain the respect of rich men and the nobility, he should be inflexible. The king then went to Tordehumos, where the rebel magnate was, and surrounded the town at the end of October 1307, being accompanied by numerous rich men with his troops, and also by those of the Master of Santiago. Shortly after, they were joined by the infante Juan, who had recovered from an illness, and his son, Alfonso de Valencia, with their retinues.
While the king was in the siege of Tordehumos, he received the order from Pope Clement V to seize the castles and possessions of the Order of the Temple, and to keep them in his possession until the pontiff decided what was to be done with them. At the same time, the infante Juan presented a peace proposal to the king, coming from the besieged in Tordehumos, which Fernando IV did not accept. During the siege the King, finding it difficult to pay his troops, sent his wife and newborn daughter, the Infanta Leonor of Castile, to request a loan in her name from her father-in-law, the King of Portugal. At the same time, the infante Juan, resentful, advised the monarch to abandon the siege and that he would finish it, or that he would take Íscar, or that he would attend the interview that Fernando IV had to hold in Tarazona with the King of Aragon in his place. However, the king, suspicious of his uncle, the infant, ignored his proposals and tried to satisfy him by other means.
Because of the desertions of some rich men, among them Alfonso de Valencia, son of the infant Juan, Rodrigo Álvarez de las Asturias IV and García Fernández de Villamayor, and also because of the illness of the queen mother, who could not advise him, the king decided to agree with Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor the latter's surrender. After he surrendered the town of Tordehumos, at the beginning of 1308, Juan Núñez de Lara promised to hand over all his lands to the king, except those he had in La Bureba and La Rioja, as Diego López V de Haro had them, at the time he surrendered homage to the king, who signed this agreement behind the back of the queen mother, who was seriously ill at the time.
Once the siege of Tordehumos was finished, numerous magnates and knights tried to make enemies of the king with Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor and with his uncle the infante Juan, telling each of them separately that the king wanted the death of both, for so the two allied themselves, fearing that the king wanted their deaths, although without counting on the support of Diego López V de Haro. However, they were persuaded by María de Molina that the king did not wish them harm, something that was later confirmed by the king himself. However, the Infante Juan and his companions requested to present their requests to the queen and not to him, to which the sovereign agreed. The claims, presented by the plaintiffs in the Grijota hearings, involved the sovereign granting the merindad of Galicia to Rodrigo Álvarez de las Asturias IV and the merindad of Castilla to Fernán Ruiz de Saldaña, at the same time that he had to expel his followers from court. private, Sancho Sánchez de Velasco, Diego García, and Fernán Gómez de Toledo. The demands presented by the magnates were accepted by the monarch.
In 1308, Rodrigo Yáñez, Master of the Order of the Temple in the kingdoms of Castilla and León, prepared to hand over to María de Molina the fortresses of the Order in the kingdom, but the queen did not agree to take them without her consent of his son the king, which the latter granted. However, the master did not hand over the castles to the queen mother, but offered to the infant Felipe of Castilla, brother of Ferdinand IV, to hand them over to him, on condition that the infant beg the king, on his behalf, that the monarch attend the demands of the Templars to the prelates of his kingdom.
In the Courts of Burgos in 1308, in addition to the king, Queen María de Molina, the Infante Juan of Castilla, the Infante Pedro of Castilla, Don Juan Manuel and most of the wealthy men and magnates were present. Fernando IV tried to bring order to the affairs of his kingdoms, as well as to achieve a balanced budget and reorganize the administration of the Court, while trying to cut the powers of the infante Juan, the latter aspect not achieved by the monarch.
The Infante Juan entered into a lawsuit with the Infante Felipe of Castilla for the possession of the castle of Ponferrada, which the latter had appropriated, as well as those of Alcañices, San Pedro de Latarce and Haro, and that he had to deliver to the king, while the Master of the Order of the Temple promised to deliver to the king the castles that he still had in his possession.
The Treaty of Alcalá de Henares (1308)
In March 1306 Fernando IV had requested to meet with James II of Aragon, and from that moment the ambassadors of the two monarchies tried to set a date for the meeting of the two sovereigns, which had to be postponed several times due to the internal conflicts existing in both kingdoms. The clauses of the treaty of Alcalá de Henares, signed on December 19, 1308, had their origin in the meetings held by the kings of Castilla and Aragón in the monastery of Santa María de Huerta and in Monreal de Ariza in the month of December. from 1308. The topics discussed in the interviews were the relaunching of the Reconquista war effort, desired by both kings, and the marriage of the Infanta Leonor of Castilla, eldest daughter and heiress of Ferdinand IV, with the Infante Jaime of Aragon, son and heir of Jaime II of Aragon and, finally, the satisfaction of the commitments contracted with Alfonso de la Cerda, which had not yet been fully satisfied.
Regarding the marriage between the Infanta Leonor and the Infante Jaime, although it was celebrated it was never consummated, since the Infante Jaime fled the betrothal ceremony, renounced his rights to the throne shortly after, and entered the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem. The Infanta Leonor married years later with Alfonso IV of Aragon, son and successor of Jaime II of Aragon. Regarding the second issue discussed in the interviews with the sovereigns, Fernando IV gave Alfonso de la Cerda 220,000 maravedíes that had not yet been delivered and the latter returned the towns of Deza, Serón and Alcalá to the king. The idea of starting the fight again against the Kingdom of Granada was welcomed with enthusiasm by both sovereigns, who had the support of the King of Morocco, who was at war against King Muhammad III of Granada.
After the interviews held between the two sovereigns, Fernando IV met in the town of Almazán with his mother and both agreed to cleanse the area between Almazán and Atienza of criminals, and destroy the fortresses that served as refuge, a task in which they the infante Felipe de Castilla, brother of Fernando IV, took part. For her part, Queen María de Molina was pleased with the agreements reached between Fernando IV and the King of Aragon. Next, the king went to Alcalá de Henares.
On December 19, 1308, in Alcalá de Henares, Ferdinand IV of Castile and the Aragonese ambassadors Bernaldo de Sarriá and Gonzalo García signed the Treaty of Alcalá de Henares. Fernando IV, who had the support of his brother, the Infante Pedro, Diego López V de Haro, the Archbishop of Toledo and the Bishop of Zamora, agreed to start the war against the Kingdom of Granada on June 24, 1309 and He undertook, like the Aragonese monarch, not to sign a separate peace with the Granada monarch. The Castilian king would contribute ten galleys to the expedition and the Aragonese king as many. It was approved with the consent of both parties that the Castilian troops would attack the plazas of Algeciras and Gibraltar, while the Aragonese would conquer the city of Almería.
Fernando IV undertook to cede a sixth of the kingdom of Granada to the Aragonese king, and granted him the entire kingdom of Almería as an advance for himself, except for the squares of Bedmar, Locubin, Alcaudete, Quesada and Arenas, that had formed part of the Crown of Castile in the past. Fernando IV established that if the circumstance occurred that the kingdom of Almería did not correspond to the sixth part of the Kingdom of Granada, the Archbishop of Toledo on behalf of Castile and the Bishop of Valencia on the part of the Aragonese would be in charge of resolving the possible deficiencies of the calculation. The concession to the kingdom of Aragon of such an extensive part of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada motivated the infante Juan de Castilla el de Tarifa and don Juan Manuel to protest against the ratification of the treaty, although said protest had no consequences.
The entry into force of the clauses of the treaty of Alcalá de Henares meant a notable extension of the future limits of the kingdom of Aragon, which reached greater limits than those foreseen in the treaties of Cazorla and Almizra, in which they had been established. established the future areas of expansion of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon in the past. In addition, Fernando IV granted his consent for Jaime II of Aragon to negotiate an alliance with the King of Morocco, in order to combat the Kingdom of Granada.
After the signing of the treaty of Alcalá de Henares, the kings of Castile and Aragon sent ambassadors to the Court of Avignon, in order to request Pope Clement V to grant the status of a crusade to the fight against the Muslims of the south of the Iberian Peninsula, and to grant the necessary dispensation for the celebration of the marriage between the Infanta Leonor of Castilla, eldest daughter and heiress of Ferdinand IV, and the Infante Jaime of Aragon, son and heir of James II of Aragon, to which the Pope agreed, since the necessary dispensation to celebrate said marriage was granted before the arrival of the ambassadors in Avignon. On April 24, 1309, Pope Clement V, through the bull "Indesinentis cure", authorized the preaching of the crusade in the domains of King James II of Aragon, and granted to the company the tithes that had been destined to the conquest of Corsica and Sardinia.
In the Cortes of Madrid in 1309, the first held in the current capital of Spain, the king expressed his desire to go to war against the Kingdom of Granada, while demanding subsidies to wage war. Present in said Cortes were King Ferdinand IV and his wife, his mother, Queen María de Molina, the infants Pedro, Felipe and Juan, Don Juan Manuel, Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor, Diego López V de Haro, Alfonso Téllez de Molina, brother of Queen María de Molina, the Archbishop of Toledo, the Masters of the Military Orders of Santiago and Calatrava, the representatives of the cities and councils, and other nobles and prelates. The Cortes approved the concession of five services, destined to pay the soldiers of the rich men and hidalgos.
Numerous magnates of the kingdom, headed by the Infante Juan de Castilla el de Tarifa and Don Juan Manuel, opposed the project of taking the city of Algeciras, as they preferred to carry out a campaign of looting and devastation in Vega de Granada. In addition, the infante Juan was resentful with the king due to the latter's refusal to hand over the municipality of Ponferrada, and Don Juan Manuel, despite the fact that he wanted to wage war on the kingdom of Granada from his Murcian lands, was forced by Fernando IV to participate with his retinues in the siege of Algeciras.
At that time, the Master of the Order of Calatrava made a raid on the border and obtained considerable booty, and on March 13, 1309, the Bishop of Cartagena, with the approval of the Cartagena cathedral chapter, He seized the town and the castle of Lubrín, which would later be donated to him by Fernando IV. After the Cortes of Madrid, Fernando IV went to Toledo, where he waited for his troops to join him, while leaving his mother, Queen María de Molina, in charge of the government of the kingdom, entrusting her with custody of the seals. real.
The conquest of Gibraltar and the siege of Algeciras (1309)
The infante Juan de Castilla el de Tarifa, Don Juan Manuel, Diego López V de Haro, Lord of Vizcaya, Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor, Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, Fernán Ruiz de Saldaña, and other magnates and rich Castilian men intervened in the campaign.. The council militias of Salamanca, Segovia, Seville, and other cities also took part in the enterprise. For his part, King Dionisio I of Portugal, father-in-law of Ferdinand IV of Castile, sent a contingent of 700 knights under the command of Martín Gil de Sousa, Ensign of the King of Portugal, and Jaime II of Aragon contributed to the expedition against Algeciras. ten galleys. Pope Clement V, through the bull "Prioribus, decanis", issued on April 29, 1309 in the city of Avignon, granted Ferdinand IV of Castile the tenth part of all the ecclesiastical revenues of their kingdoms for three years, in order to contribute to sustaining the war against the Kingdom of Granada.
From the city of Toledo, Ferdinand IV headed for Córdoba, where the emissaries of the King of Aragon announced that Jaime II of Aragon was ready to begin the siege of Almería. In the city of Córdoba, King Ferdinand IV discussed the campaign plan again, as his brother the Infante Pedro, his uncle the Infante Juan de Castilla "el de Tarifa", Don Juan Manuel and Diego López V of Haro, among others, were opposed to the project to encircle the city of Algeciras, since all of them preferred to loot and devastate the Vega de Granada through a series of successive attacks that would demoralize the Muslims of Granada. However, the will of Fernando IV prevailed and the Castilian-Leonese troops prepared to besiege Algeciras. The last preparations for the campaign were made in the city of Seville, where Ferdinand IV arrived at the beginning of July 1309. The food and supplies accumulated in the city of Seville by the Castilian-Leonese army were transferred by the Guadalquivir river, and later by sea to Algeciras.
On July 27, 1309, a part of the Castilian-Leonese army was before the walls of the city of Algeciras, and three days later, on July 30, King Ferdinand IV of Castile and his uncle the Infante Juan de Castilla "el de Tarifa", accompanied by numerous wealthy men. For his part, King James II of Aragon began to besiege the city of Almería on August 15, and the siege lasted until January 26, 1310. While the city of Algeciras remained besieged by Christian troops, the The city of Gibraltar capitulated before the troops of Fernando IV of Castile on September 12, 1309. A few days after besieging the city of Algeciras, the king sent Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor, Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, to the Archbishop of Seville, the Seville City Council and the Master of the Order of Calatrava to besiege Gibraltar, which capitulated to the troops of Ferdinand IV of Castile on September 12, 1309, after a brief and harsh siege.
In mid-October 1309, the infante Juan de Castilla "el de Tarifa", his son Alfonso de Valencia, don Juan Manuel and Fernán Ruiz de Saldaña, deserted and abandoned the Christian camp located before Algeciras, being accompanied in their flight by another five hundred knights. Such action, motivated by the fact that Ferdinand IV owed them certain amounts of money corresponding to his soldiers, provoked the indignation of the European Courts and the protest of Jaime II of Aragon, who tried to persuade the deserters, albeit unsuccessfully, to return to the site of Algeciras. However, King Ferdinand IV, who had the support of his brother, the Infante Pedro, Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor and Diego López V de Haro, persisted in his attempt to seize Algeciras.
The scarcity and poverty of means in the Christian camp became so alarming that King Ferdinand IV was forced to pawn the jewels and crowns of his wife, Queen Constance of Portugal, in order to pay the wages of the knights and the crews of the galleys. Shortly after, the troops of the Infante Felipe de Castilla, brother of Ferdinand IV, and those of the Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela arrived at the Christian camp, who arrived accompanied by 400 knights and a good number of pawns. At the end of 1309, Diego López V de Haro became seriously ill as a result of a gout attack, which was added to the death of Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, lord of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, to the rainstorm that flooded the Christian camp, and the desertion of the Infante Juan and Don Juan Manuel. However, despite these adversities, Fernando IV of Castile persisted until the last moment in his goal of seizing Algeciras, although in the end he abandoned his goal.
In January 1310, King Ferdinand IV decided to negotiate with the people of Granada, who had sent the arráez de Andarax as an emissary to the Christian camp. Once an agreement was reached, in which it was stipulated that in exchange for lifting the siege of Algeciras Fernando IV would receive Quesada and Bedmar, in addition to 50,000 gold doubles, the king ordered the siege to be lifted at the end of January 1310. After the agreement was signed Diego López V de Haro died preliminary, and María Díaz de Haro, wife of the infante Juan, took possession of the lordship of Vizcaya. Later, the infante Juan de Castilla el de Tarifa returned to the king the towns of Paredes de Nava, Cabreros, Medina de Rioseco, Castronuño and Mansilla. At the end of January 1310, at the same time that Fernando IV ordered the lifting of the siege of Algeciras, Jaime II of Aragon ordered the lifting of the siege of Almería, without having managed to seize the city.
Overall, the campaign of 1309 was more profitable for the Castilian arms than for those of Aragon, since Ferdinand IV was able to incorporate Gibraltar into his domain. The betrayal and desertion of the two relatives of the king, Don Juan Manuel and the infante Juan de Castilla was badly considered by all the European Courts, which did not spare qualifications when defining the two Castilian magnates.
Last stage of the reign and death of the king (1310-1312)
Conflicts with the Infante Juan and Don Juan Manuel (1310-1311)
In 1310, once the siege of Algeciras had been lifted, King Ferdinand IV sent Juan Núñez de Lara the Lesser to confer with Pope Clemente V, whom the king begged, in agreement with the king of Aragon, to not allow his predecessor in the chair of San Pedro, Pope Bonifacio VIII, who had legitimized the marriage of Fernando IV's parents in 1301, legitimizing Fernando IV himself, to be prosecuted. Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor was also to inform Clemente V about the causes that had led to the lifting of the siege of Algeciras, and was to ask the Pope, on behalf of Ferdinand IV, for subsidies to be able to continue the war against the Kingdom of Algeciras in the future. Grenade. Pope Clement V tried to soften the animosity that Felipe IV the Fair, King of France, felt towards his predecessor, Pope Boniface VIII, he reproached the Infante Juan and don Juan Manuel for their conduct during the siege of Algeciras, he granted the king the tithes collected in his kingdom for a year, and sent various letters to the prelates of the kingdoms of Castilla and León in which they were ordered to severely reprimand those who did not collaborate with the king in the Reconquest enterprise.
Meanwhile, Ferdinand IV again undertook the war against the Kingdom of Granada. The infant Pedro, his brother, conquered the castle of Tempul and later went to Seville, where his brother the king was. In November 1310, both brothers went to Córdoba, where there had been a popular uprising against various knights from the city. Meanwhile, Queen María de Molina, who was in Valladolid, begged her son to join her there, so that the monarch could be present at the wedding of his sister, the Infanta Isabel de Castilla, who was going to marry John III of Brittany, Duke of Brittany and great-grandson of Henry III of England. On the way to Burgos, Fernando IV stopped in the city of Toledo and confessed to Juan Núñez de Lara the Lesser that he planned to arrest or assassinate the infant Juan, since the king thought that as long as the infant lived, he would harm him and hinder all his purposes.. However, Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor, despite the hatred he felt towards the infant, realized that the king was not doing it out of affection for him, and that if he helped the king get rid of the infant, he would wreak his own ruin.. Ferdinand IV arrived in Burgos in January 1311.
After the wedding of the Infanta Isabel, sister of Ferdinand IV, the latter planned to assassinate the Infante Juan de Castilla "el de Tarifa" in the city of Burgos, in January 1311, to take revenge in this way for the desertion of the infante from the siege of Algeciras and, at the same time, to subdue the nobility, which once again rebelled against the power of the Crown. However, Queen María de Molina warned the infant Juan of the purposes of her son and the infant was able to get to safety. Fernando IV, accompanied by his brother, the Infante Pedro, by Lope Díaz de Haro, and by the retinues of the Burgos council, persecuted the Infante Juan and his supporters, who took refuge in the Palencia town of Saldaña.
The king then deprived the Infante Juan of the Advancement of the border and granted it to Juan Núñez de Lara the Lesser, at the time that he ordered the confiscation of the lands and dominions that he had given to the Infante, his children, Alfonso de Valencia and Juan el Tuerto, and the same fate befell Sancho de Castilla "el de la Paz", cousin of Fernando IV and supporter of the infante Juan. At the same time, Don Juan Manuel reconciled with the king and asked him to grant him the position of King's Mayordomo, for which the monarch, who wanted to attract Don Juan Manuel, believing that the latter would break his friendship with the infant Juan stripped the infant Pedro of the position of Majordomo and granted it to him, giving his brother the towns of Almazán and Berlanga de Duero, which he had previously promised.
In early February 1311, and despite the fact that he had reconciled with Fernando IV, Don Juan Manuel left the city of Burgos and headed for Peñafiel, meeting shortly after with the infante Juan in Dueñas. The supporters and vassals of the infante Juan, fearing the king, prepared to defend him, among them Sancho de Castilla "el de la Paz" and Juan Alfonso de Haro. In view of the situation, Fernando IV, who did not want an open rebellion by the supporters of the Infante Juan, in addition to wanting to dedicate himself exclusively to the war against the Kingdom of Granada, sent Queen María de Molina to confer with the Infante Juan, with his children, and with his supporters in Villamuriel de Cerrato. The talks lasted fifteen days and Queen María de Molina was accompanied by the Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela, and by the Bishops of León, Lugo, Mondoñedo and Palencia. The talks ended with agreement between the Infante Juan, who was concerned about his personal safety, and King Ferdinand IV. This concord bothered Queen Constanza of Portugal, wife of Fernando IV, and Juan Núñez de Lara the Lesser, who continued to be at odds with the infante Juan. Shortly after, Fernando IV met with the Infante Juan de Castilla el de Tarifa in the municipality of Grijota, and both ratified the agreement between the Infante Juan and Queen María de Molina in Villamuriel de Cerrato.
On March 20, 1311, during an assembly of prelates in the city of Palencia, Fernando IV confirmed and granted new privileges to the churches and prelates of his kingdoms, and responded to their demands. In April 1311, while in Palencia, Fernando IV became seriously ill and had to be transferred to Valladolid, despite the opposition of Queen Constanza, his wife, who wanted to transfer him to Carrión de los Condes, in order to be able to control the monarch together with his ally, Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor. During the king's illness, discrepancies arose between the infante Pedro, Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor, the infante Juan, and Don Juan Manuel. While the king was in Toro, Queen Constanza gave birth in Salamanca on August 13, 1311 to a son, who would come to reign in Castile on the death of his father as Alfonso XI of Castile. The infante Alfonso, heir to Fernando IV, was baptized in the Old Cathedral of Salamanca, and despite the wishes of the king, who wanted to entrust the child's upbringing to his grandmother, Queen María de Molina, the will of Queen Constanza prevailed., who wanted, with the support of Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor and Lope Díaz de Haro, that the custody of the child be entrusted to the infant Pedro de Castilla, brother of Fernando IV.
In the autumn of 1311 a conspiracy arose that sought to dethrone Ferdinand IV of Castile and place his brother, the Infante Pedro of Castile, on the throne. The conspiracy was carried out by the infante Juan de Castilla "el de Tarifa", by Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor and by Lope Díaz de Haro, son of the late Diego López V de Haro. However, the dethronement project failed due to the resounding refusal of Queen María de Molina.
Concord of Palencia and Views of Calatayud (1311-1312)
Infante Juan and the main magnates of the kingdom threatened Fernando IV to stop serving him, in the middle of 1311, if the monarch did not satisfy their requests. The Infante Juan and his followers demanded that he replace his advisers and privates by the Infante Juan himself, Queen María de Molina, the Infante Pedro, Don Juan Manuel, Juan Núñez de Lara the Lesser, and by the bishops of Astorga, Zamora, Orense and Palencia, who should be the king's new advisors. Don Juan Manuel remained loyal to Fernando IV, due to the fact that on October 15 the king had ceded to him all the chests and real rights of Valdemoro and Rabrido, with the exception of the foreign currency of both places and the martiniega of Rabrido, that had been delivered to Alfonso de la Cerda.
With the desire to achieve peace and that no obstacle stood in the way of relaunching the Reconquest, Fernando IV agreed to sign the concord of Palencia, initialed on October 28, 1311, with the infante Juan and the rest of the magnates, and whose clauses were ratified in the Cortes of Valladolid in 1312. The king promised to respect the uses, privileges and privileges of the nobles, prelates, and good men of the towns, and not to try to dispossess the nobles from the income and lands they had belonging to the Crown. Fernando IV ratified that the upbringing of his son, the infante Alfonso, would be entrusted to his brother, the infante Pedro, to whom he also ceded the town of Santander. The King ceded the municipality of Ponferrada to the Infante Juan, on the condition that he did not establish any kind of agreement with Juan Núñez de Lara el Menor, although the Infante broke his word before eight days had elapsed.
In December 1311 Ferdinand IV met King Jaime II of Aragon in Calatayud. At that time the marriage took place between the Infante Pedro de Castilla, brother of Fernando IV, and the Infanta María de Aragón, daughter of Jaime II of Aragón, although some authors indicate that the marriage took place in the month of January. of 1312. At the same time, Ferdinand IV handed over to the Aragonese sovereign his eldest daughter, the Infanta Leonor of Castilla, so that she would be raised in the Aragonese court until she was of the appropriate age to marry the infante Jaime of Aragon, eldest son. and heir to the Aragonese king.
In the Calatayud interview of 1311 it was also agreed to resume the war against the Kingdom of Granada, but it was decided that each kingdom would do it separately, while Jaime II promised to mediate between Ferdinand IV and the King of Portugal in the conflict that both maintained about the possession of some towns that Dionisio I of Portugal had seized during the minority of Fernando IV. However, the death of Ferdinand IV in September 1312 put an end to these negotiations between the sovereigns of Aragon and Portugal. On April 3, 1312, shortly after the interview with Calatayud, don Juan Manuel married the infanta Constanza de Aragón, daughter of Jaime II of Aragón, in the city of Játiva.
Last period of the king's life (1312)
After his stay in the city of Calatayud, Fernando IV went to the city of Valladolid, where the Cortes were going to meet. In the Courts of Valladolid in 1312, the last of the reign of Fernando IV, funds were raised to maintain the army that would be used in the following campaign against the kingdom of Granada, the administration of justice, territorial administration and local administration were reorganized, thereby showing the king's desire to carry out profound reforms in all areas of administration, while trying to strengthen the authority of the Crown to the detriment of the noble authority. The Cortes approved the concession of five services and one foreign currency, destined to the payment of the soldadas of the vassals of the king, with the exception of Juan Núñez de Lara the Menor, who had become a vassal of King Dionisio I of Portugal.
Already in October 1311, Ferdinand IV had requested a loan from King Edward II of England, in order to be able to continue the war against the kingdom of Granada, although the English sovereign refused to grant it, arguing that he had had to face numerous expenses due to his war against the Scots. In July 1312, Ferdinand IV pawned the Templar castles of Burguillos del Cerro and Alconchel in exchange for a loan of 3,600 marks from King Dionysius I of Portugal, which he needed to continue the war against the kingdom of Granada. At the end of April 1312, once the Cortes had finished, the king abandoned the city of Valladolid. In 1312, Sancho de Castilla "el de la Paz", son of the infante Pedro de Castilla and first cousin of Fernando IV, died. and incorporated the domains of his late cousin to the royal patrimony, after having found that the deceased had no legitimate children. Fernando IV then went to Salamanca, and seized the municipalities of Béjar and Alba de Tormes from his cousin Alfonso de la Cerda, who had revolted again against him.
On July 13, 1312, the king arrived in Toledo, after having left the infante Alfonso, heir to the throne, in the city of Ávila, and headed for the province of Jaén, where his brother, the infante Pedro de Castilla, was besieging the town of Alcaudete. The king, after a short stay in the city of Jaén, went to the town of Martos in Jaén, where he ordered the execution of the Carvajal brothers, accused of having murdered Juan Alonso de Benavides in Palencia, private of the king. According to legend, since this does not appear in the Chronicle of Fernando IV, the brothers were condemned to be placed in an iron cage with sharp points inside and, later, to be thrown from the summit of the Peña de Martos, introduced in said cage. The Crónica de Fernando IV states that before dying, the brothers summoned the king to appear before the Court of God within thirty days.
After his stay in Martos, the king went to Alcaudete, where he was waiting for the infant Juan de Castilla "el de Tarifa", who was to join his troops in the siege of the town. However, the infante Juan did not attend for fear that Fernando IV would order his death. Seriously ill, Fernando IV left the siege of Alcaudete and headed for the city of Jaén, at the end of August 1312.
On September 5, 1312, the garrison of Alcaudete surrendered, after three months of siege, and the infant Pedro headed for the city of Jaén, where his brother the king was waiting for him. On September 7, the day of the death of Fernando IV, both brothers agreed to help Nasr, King of Granada, with whom a truce had been agreed, and to help him in his fight against his brother-in-law Ferrachén, arráez from Málaga, who had rebelled against the king of Granada.
Different versions of the king's death
Ferdinand IV of Castile died on September 7, 1312 in the city of Jaén, without anyone seeing him die. History and legend have become inextricably intertwined concerning the demise of the monarch, who received the nickname "the Summons", due to mysterious circumstances in that it occurred. Ferdinand IV died at twenty-six years of age, and when he died he left his only son, the infante Alfonso, who would reign as Alfonso XI of Castile, as future heir, and who at the death of his father was one year old.
The Crónica de Fernando IV, written around the year 1340, almost thirty years after the king's death, thus describes the death of the Castilian-Leonese monarch, in chapter XVIII of the work, and that of the Carvajal brothers, which occurred thirty days before that of Fernando IV, although he does not specify how the latter died:
He the king went out of Jaen, and went to Martos, and was and commanded to kill two diggers that walked in his house, that they should come and grip them that were made for the death of a digger that they despised that they killed when the king was in Palencia, leaving the king's house one night, to the qual John Alonso de Benavides. And these diggers, when the king commanded to kill, seeing that they should slay them with sackcloth, said that they should implass the king to appear before God with them to be judged on this death which he commanded them to give with numbness of that day when they dwelt in the days. He was dead, another day was the king for the host of Alcaudete, and every day he waited for the infant Don Juan, he had put it with him...The King being in is near Alcaudete, took a very large disease, and saw him in such a way that he could not and could be, and came to Jaén with the dolence, and did not want to keep it, It was this Thursday that the treynta days of the location of the cavalleros that ordered to kill in Martos...
In chapter III of the Crónica de Alfonso XI, the death of Fernando IV is described in the same way as it is described in the Crónica de Fernando IV. And the historian Diego Rodríguez de Almela, in his work Valerio de las historias escolásticas y de las hechos de España, which was written around the year 1472, recounted the death of the monarch as follows:
While King Don Fernando IV of Castile, who took Gibraltar, in Martos, accused two squids before him, called the one Pedro Carbajal and the other Juan Alfonso de Carbajal, his brother, who both walked in his court, opposing them that one night, while the King was in Palencia, they killed a gentleman named Gomez de Benavides, who loved the King very much, giving him many signs of death. King Don Ferdinand, using rigorous justice, set on both brothers and sisters, and despatch them from the Pena de Martos; before they showed them that God was a witness and knew the truth that they were not guilty in that death they opposed, and that the King commanded them to despise and kill them for no reason, that they would replace him from that day that they died in thirty days before God. The squids were despicted and killed, and King Don Fernando came to Jaen. He pretended that two days before the deadline was fixed, he felt angry, ate meat and drank wine. As on the day of the thirty days that the squids that killed him were forced to commit themselves, wanting to leave for Alcaudete, that his brother the Infante Don Pedro made the Moors taken, ate early, and harassed to sleep in the nap, which was in the summer; he did so that when they were to wake him, they found him dead in the bed, that none did not see him. Much must be done before the Judges proceed to execute justice, mostly of blood, until they truly know the fact that justice must be executed. It falls as in Genesis is read: Who brings blood without sin, God will demand it. This King did not have the way that came to execution of justice, and therefore ended as it was said.
Martín Ximena Jurado, historian and chronicler from Jaen of the XVII century, in his work Catalog of the Bishops of the Cathedral Churches de Jaén and Ecclesiastical Annals of this Bishopric, described the Royal Church of Santa Marta in the city of Martos, where the remains of the Carvajal brothers, executed by order of Fernando IV, lie buried. While he described the tomb of the two brothers, he provided some information about the death of the monarch.
Father Juan de Mariana, writer and historian of the 17th century, described the conviction and execution of the Carvajal brothers in the city of Martos, and established for the first time the possible relationship between the legend of the location before the Court of God of Fernando IV, and the locations suffered by Pope Clement V, and the King of France Felipe IV el Hermoso, both occurred in 1314, two years after the death of Ferdinand IV. The last Grand Master of the Order of the Temple, Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake in Paris in March 1314, and before dying, according to tradition, he ordered to appear before God, within a year, to the Pope Clement V, King Philip IV of France and Guillermo de Nogaret, responsible for the suppression of the Order of the Temple and the death of many of its members:
The very careless King of the fact departed for Alcaudete where his exército aloxaba: there came a disease so great, that it was forced to turn to Jaén, well that the Moros moved to give the villa. The evil of every day increased, and the infirmity of luck was worsened that the King could not in itself negotiate. Still joyful for the new one who came to him that the villa was taken, he solved in his thought new conquests, quando un Thursday que se contaron seven days of the month of September, as after eating he retired to sleep, at the end of time they found him dead. He died in the flower of his age that was twenty-four years and nine months, at the time that his business was prosperously en routed. He had the King for ten and seven years, four months and ten and nine days and was the Quartus of his name. He understood that his little order in eating and drinking led him to death: others said it was the punishment of God because from the day he was quoted, until the time of his death (the marvelous and extraordinary thing) were counted precisely thirty days. This is why among the Kings of Castile was called D. Fernando el Emplazado. His body deposited in Cordova, because because of the heats that still lasted, he could not be taken to Seville or to Toledo do had the royal burials. In the spirits of the vulgo, there was a greater fame and opinion, conceived in the spirits of the vulgo, by the death of two great princes who for this reason died in the next two years: these were Philipo King of France and Pope Clement, both summoned by the Templars to go before the divine court while with fire and all kinds of torments sent them to punish and persecute all that religion. Such was the fame that ran, if true if false, it is not known, but it is to believe that it was false: in what happened to King D. Fernando nobody doubts...
The historian and archaeologist from Palencia, Francisco Simón y Nieto, pointed out in his work A page from the reign of Fernando IV. Lawsuit followed in Valladolid before the king and his court in a session, by the representatives of Palencia against Bishop D. Álvaro Carrillo, May 28, 1298, published in 1912, which the The ultimate cause of Fernando IV's death could be a coronary thrombosis, although without ruling out others, such as cerebral hemorrhage, acute pulmonary edema, angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, embolism, syncope or others.
Burial
In September 1312, shortly after his death, the mortal remains of Fernando IV of Castile were transferred to the city of Córdoba, and on September 13 they were buried in a chapel of the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, despite the fact that his corpse should have been buried in the Cathedral of Toledo next to his father, King Sancho IV, or else in the cathedral of Seville next to his paternal grandfather, Alfonso X, and his paternal great-grandfather, Fernando III.
However, due to the high temperatures that occurred in September 1312, Queen Constance of Portugal, widow of Ferdinand IV, and Infante Pedro de Castilla, brother of the late king, decided to bury the the mortal remains of Fernando IV in the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba. Queen Constanza of Portugal also founded six chaplaincies and ordered that the perpetual anniversary in memory of the late king be celebrated in the month of September. Until a year had elapsed since the death of the monarch, four candles burned permanently next to his tomb and, daily, during that year, the bishop of the city and the cathedral chapter sang responses once a day for the soul of the deceased king next to his burial. In 1371, the mortal remains of Ferdinand IV and those of his son, Alfonso XI of Castile, were deposited in the Royal Chapel of the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, whose construction had been completed that same year.
In 1728, Pope Benedict XIII issued a bull by which the Royal Chapel of the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba was attached to the church of San Hipólito de Córdoba, and that same year, after several prayers by the canons of the church of San Hipólito de Córdoba, who had requested Felipe V that the remains of Fernando IV and Alfonso XI be transferred to their collegiate church, the king authorized the transfer of the remains of the two monarchs, who were buried in the Royal Chapel of the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba.
In 1729 the works for the completion of the church of San Hipólito began, which were considered finished in 1736, and on the night of August 8, 1736, with all honors, the mortal remains of Fernando IV and from Alfonso XI they were transferred to the church of San Hipólito de Córdoba, where they have rested ever since. At the same time, the canons of San Hipólito moved all the movable property of the Royal Chapel of the Mosque-Cathedral to their collegiate church.
In the first section of the presbytery of the church of San Hipólito de Córdoba, housed in separate arcosolios, are the tombs containing the mortal remains of Fernando IV, located on the Epistle side, and the one containing the remains of his son Alfonso XI, who is on the Gospel side. The mortal remains of both monarchs are deposited inside two red marble urns, built with marble from the disappeared monastery of San Jerónimo de Córdoba, and both were made in 1846, commissioned by the Monuments Commission.
Until then, the remains of both monarchs had been placed in separate wooden coffins in the chancel of the church, where they were displayed to distinguished visitors. On the covers of both tombs there are two cushions placed on which a crown and a sceptre, symbols of royalty, are placed.
Marriage and offspring
Ferdinand IV married in the city of Valladolid, on January 23, 1302, with Constanza of Portugal, daughter of King Dionisio I of Portugal, and three children were born from that marriage:
- Leonor de Castilla (1307-1359). He married Alfonso IV of Aragon, and was murdered in 1359 in the municipality of Castrojeriz in order of his nephew, Pedro I of Castile.
- Constance of Castile (1308-1310). He died in childhood and was buried in the disappeared monastery of Santo Domingo el Real de Madrid, although in 1869 his mortal remains were transferred to the crypt of the church of San Antonio de los Alemanes of the same city, where they rest today.
- Alfonso XI de Castilla (1311-1350). He succeeded his father on the throne of Castile and died in 1350 because of the black plague as Gibraltar was besieged.
Ancestors
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| Predecessor: Sancho IV | .svg) King of Castile 1295-1312 | Successor: Alfonso XI |
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