Historic Bubbles

by Frederic Leake

I must refer the reader to the essay on the Captivity for an account of this visit to his Holiness. It was successful beyond their hopes, so that now with money in both pockets and the benediction of the pontiff upon their enterprise, they felt they could ransack Castile with a clear conscience.

Pedro was not able to hold his own against them. He was driven from Castile, and Henry of Trastamara was crowned at Burgos.

Pedro fled into Guienne. That province then belonged to the English. It was a portion of the inheritance of Eleanor wife of Henry II. the first king of the House of Plantagenet. Edward the Black Prince governed it as viceroy and held his court at Bordeaux. Edward had been on the point of becoming brother-in-law to Pedro who had been affianced to Edward’s sister Joan as I have already related, and Pedro induced him to undertake to recover for him the throne of Castile. Edward insisted on a preliminary contract by which Pedro was to pay the cost of the expedition if successful. He then put his legions in motion. Henry called Du Guesclin to his side. The knight, probably the best soldier in Europe after Edward, was averse to a battle. He warned Henry that their Free-Companions would not stand against the disciplined veterans of the Black Prince; but Henry was rash as well as brave. He put too much trust in his Spanish contingent who had fought against the Moors and never yet turned their backs to an enemy. The result was the battle of Najara where Henry and Bertrand were defeated; and Pedro was restored to the throne.

Edward in taking leave, admonished him to be clement to his people, and not massacre quiet folks who during the short reign of Henry, had shown respect for the king de facto; and also to pay promptly the money he owed him. Pedro promised to do both; but Edward’s back was no sooner turned than the dagger, the bowl and the cord were in full play again. Pedro seemed to think he had too many subjects and that it was well to thin them out. One night a gentleman was set upon and killed in the streets of Toledo. A woman who had witnessed the fray, testified that one of the murderers made a crackling noise with his legs in walking. This was a known peculiarity of the king: he was the assassin. He ordered a wooden effigy of himself to be made and to be beheaded in the market-place. This expiation procured for him the name of Pedro-the-just.

As to the other point of his promise, he sent to Edward a small sum and then suspended payment. Edward demanded the remainder. Pedro, after having gone through the whole litany of excuses so well known to debtors, sent him word that if he wanted his money he had better come and get it. He could now do this with impunity. The prince had contracted in the Najara campaign, a dysentery which proved fatal. He lived long enough however to know that he had served an ingrate and to foretell that the service would do him no good.

The prediction was verified. Henry no sooner learned the death of the Black Prince than he hastened to concert new measures with Du Guesclin. Once more did the knight muster his tramps. They burst into Castile this time without visiting the pope and getting his blessing: perhaps the former benediction was still of force, though they had doubtless spent the money. Pedro was besieged in one of his towns and taken prisoner. He was brought into the presence of Henry. The two brothers had not met in fifteen years. They drew their swords and flew at each other with desperate fury, and Pedro fell by the hand of Henry.

Henry of Trastamara once more mounted the throne of Castile, and this time he transmitted it to his descendants. Through a succession of Henrys and Johns and Isabellas and Joannas which I spare you, the crown of Castile fell to Isabella wife of Ferdinand of Aragon. Their grandson was the great emperor Charles V. From him is descended the present House of Spain and also the House of Bourbon.

But I have intimated that the queen of England is descended from the cruel Pedro.

Isabella daughter of Peter and Maria de Padilla, married Edmund duke of York fifth son of Edward III. Their son Richard earl of Cambridge married Anne Mortimer a marriage which tied a knot in English pedigree that it took thirty years of civil war to untie, or rather to cut with the sword. And who was Anne Mortimer to set all England together by the ears?

In the several lulls in that civil war, when a Lancastrian and a Yorkist met by chance and talked politics, the former would say: John of Gaunt was the fourth son of Edward III. while your Edmund of York was the fifth, and thus Lancaster takes precedence. Softly my good Sir, replies the Yorkist: Richard of Cambridge married Anne Mortimer. The Lancastrian responds with the hyperbole that it is not worth while to go back to king Arthur. They touch their hats and bid each other good morning, or what is quite as likely, draw their swords and fight.