Henry I of Castile

Enrique I of Castile (Valladolid, April 14, 1204-Palencia, June 6, 1217) was King of Castile between 1214 and 1217, the year in which he died as a result of a accident in the city of Palencia. He was the tenth son of Alfonso VIII and his wife, Queen Eleanor of Plantagenet. He was succeeded to the throne by his sister Queen Berenguela, who later resigned in her son, the future King Ferdinand III.

Family origins

He was the son of Alfonso VIII of Castile and his wife, Queen Eleanor of Plantagenet. His paternal grandparents were King Sancho III of Castile and his wife Blanca Garcés of Pamplona and his maternal grandparents were King Henry II of England and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine. His siblings were, among others, Queen Berenguela of Castile, Queen Blanca of Castile, who married Louis VIII of France, and Queen Urraca of Castile, who married Alfonso II of Portugal.

Biography

The youngest son of Alfonso VIII and Eleanor of Plantagenet, the death of his male brothers and that of his father, Alfonso VIII, which occurred in the year 1214, led him to inherit the paternal throne when he was ten years old.

King Henry's minority marked the beginning of a period of regency. His father, in his will drawn up shortly before he died, had entrusted guardianship to Queen Eleanor who, however, died twenty-four days later. Before her death, the queen had entrusted the custody of the young king to her daughter and Enrique's older sister, Queen Berenguela, who had resided in the Castilian court since her marriage to Alfonso IX of León had been annulled in 1204 by Pope Innocent III.

The regency of the Infanta Berenguela was disturbed by the members of the House of Lara, a family of the high Castilian nobility that had already stood out for its political intervention during the minority of the late Alfonso VIII of Castile, a period in the one that was fought by the House of Castro. Headed by Count Álvaro Núñez de Lara, the members of the House of Lara refused to support the Infanta Berenguela as regent of the kingdom and forced her to renounce the regency of her brother to avoid the conflicts that characterized the first years of the kingdom. reign of his father Alfonso VIII, when armed clashes such as the battle of Lobregal or Huete took place. In reality, the short reign was marked by the fight between two factions of the nobility: that of the Lara and the one that supported Berenguela, made up mainly of the Girón, Téllez, Haro and Cameros. The dispute caused damage in various parts of the kingdom, especially in Tierra de Campos. The House of Lara reached its political apogee in Castile during Enrique's short reign, although they had already been the most favored lineage in the last years of Alfonso VIII. The family had not only with strategic possessions on the Castilian-Leonese border, but also extensive possessions in León.

The guardianship of the Count of Lara produced disagreements among the Castilian nobility, since its members feared the power that the members of the House of Lara obtained with it, who from the outset maneuvered in order to consolidate their position, arranging for this, in the year 1215, the marriage of Enrique I of Castile with the infanta Mafalda of Portugal, daughter of King Sancho I of Portugal. The king's marriage was celebrated in the city of Burgos before August 29, although it was never consummated and was annulled the following year, in 1216, by Pope Innocent III, due to the degree of kinship between the two spouses. The two opposing noble parties sought the collaboration of the Portuguese king; in the summer of 1216 Enrique signed a peace treaty with him that favored the side of the Lara.

The annulment of the king's marriage prompted Álvaro Núñez de Lara to arrange a new marriage with Sancha, daughter of King Alfonso IX of León, intending to unite the kingdoms of Castile and León and separate the line of succession of both kingdoms the infant Fernando de León, son of Queen Berenguela and Alfonso IX of León. The marriage did not take place due to Enrique's death.

Death and burial

Enrique died accidentally at the age of thirteen, and as a consequence of an injury received in the Episcopal Palace of Palencia while playing with other children. The Anales Toledanos Primeros refer to the death of Enrique I of Castile, which occurred on June 6, 1217, when he was thirteen years, one month and twenty-three days old:

King Don Enric trevellaba with his mozos e firiolo a mozo with a stone in the head non for his degree and died inde VI days of June on Tuesday was MCCLV

After his death, the corpse of King Enrique was taken by Count Álvaro Núñez de Lara to the municipality of Tariego de Cerrato, located between the cities of Burgos and Dueñas, in order to hide his death. His sister Berenguela, who succeeded him on the Castilian throne, nevertheless seized the city of Dueñas and sent the bishops of Palencia and Burgos to take charge of the mortal remains of the deceased king and later accompanied them to the monastery of Las Burgos strikes where they were buried. The death of the king aggravated the internal struggles and the crisis of the kingdom.

Genealogy