Thus all that remained of this “high and mighty king, Don Pedro,” as set forth on his portal in Alcazar of Seville, were his three illegitimate daughters, Costanza and Isabel, married to the brothers of the Black Prince, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and Edmund of Cambridge, Duke of York; Beatrix, the oldest, becoming a nun.
After all, El Caballero died young, reigning but eleven years, and it is recorded that on his deathbed he heartily repented of his rebellion and the murder of his brother.
“Be faithful to France,” said he to his son Juan, who succeeded him, 1380; “but above all, draw to your side the followers of my brother Pedro. They are true hidalgos, who were faithful to him on the losing side.”
Bertrand Du Guesclin, or Claquin, received the price of his baseness in the Dukedoms of Molinos and Soria, but, as with Judas, the possession of great riches gave him no pleasure. He afterwards sold them for a small sum and returned to France, a sorrowing and a dishonoured man; and Charles the Bad received, I am happy to say, the reward of his treason in a series of defeats at the hand of Enrique de Trastamare.
CHAPTER XX
Juan I.—Enrique el Enfermo
HE Court vacillates between Burgos and Valladolid, both cities of the plain. Since the death of Don Pedro the charms of Seville are neglected.
All the fighting is in the north, mostly with Aragon and Portugal.
Valladolid (Belad-Waled of the Moors) remains much the same dull, ugly town, without a charm; to be greatly favoured by-and-by by Philip the Second, when his time comes to reign, as one of the centres of the Inquisition, and a convenient place to burn heretics in the great Plaza.
But Burgos has become a noble city, much altered and embellished since the homely days of the Cid Campeador, when his Suelo stood on the ridge of the hill facing east, near the royal castle where he and Doña Ximena were received at their marriage with such honour by King Fernando and the queen.