The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 10 : $b Spain and Portugal
History
The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 10 : $b Spain and Portugal
World history
To revenge the murder of these victims, the two brothers, Henry and
Tello, who had returned to Aragon, made frequent irruptions into Castile.
In a battle fought in 1359, they triumphed over Henestrosa, whom they
left dead on the field; and, in subsequent invasions, they obtained no
small portion of plunder.[34] But none of these things moved the king,
who persevered in his course of barbarities as if his throne rested on a
rock of adamant. It is impossible to specify all his individual acts of
murder; such only can be represented here as are either more than usually
characteristic of him, or as exercised some influence on following
events: in revenge for the aid afforded to his revolted subjects by the
infante of Aragon, he put to death Leonora, the dowager queen of that
country, who had long resided in Castile, and who was also his own aunt.
But his famous, or rather infamous compact with the Portuguese king,
Pedro, is most indicative of the man. Knowing how much that sovereign
longed to extirpate all who had been concerned in the murder of Iñes
de Castro,[35] and of whom a few had sought refuge in Castile; and no
less eager on his own part to take vengeance on three or four of his own
obnoxious subjects, who had implored the protection of the Portuguese,
he proposed to surrender the Portuguese in exchange for the Castilian
refugees. The kindred soul of the Lusitanian felt a savage joy at the
proposal; in 1360, the men were exchanged and put to death.
That he cared as little for the king of France as for the pope--both
were distant enemies--Spain had a melancholy proof, in 1361, in the
tragical death of that unhappy queen, Blanche de Bourbon. His orders
for her removal by poison were first given to the governor of Xeres, to
whom the custody of her person had for some time been intrusted; but
that governor, whose name (Iñigo Ortiz de Zuñiga) ought to be revered by
posterity, refused to become the executioner of his queen. It is somewhat
surprising that his life was not the penalty of his disobedience--a doom
which he doubtless expected. A less scrupulous agent for this bloody
business was found in one of the king’s ballasteros, Juan Perez de
Robledo, who hastened to the fortress, superseded the noble Iñigo Ortiz
in the command, and perpetrated the deed--whether by poison or by steel
is unknown. The same violence befell Isabella de Lara, widow of the
infante Don Juan, whom the tyrant had murdered at Bilbao.
[Sidenote: [1361-1366 A.D.]]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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