The Picturesque Antiquities of Spain / Described in a series of letters, with illustrations representing Moorish palaces, cathedrals, and other monuments of art, contained in the cities of Burgos, Valladolid, Toledo, and Seville.

by Nathaniel Armstrong Wells

The best preserved castle of these environs, and the handsomest building, is that of Guadamur. It is not large, but it is impossible for a residence-fortress to be more complete, and more compact. It is composed of three enclosures, one within the other, and forms a quadrangle, with the addition of a lofty and massive tower, projecting from one of the angles. The centre, or inner quadrangle, is about half the height of the tower, and has, at its three remaining angles, and at the centre of each front, an elegant circular turret. This portion of the edifice formed a commodious and handsome residence. It was divided into two stories, with vaulted ceilings,—the lower apartments being probably set apart for the offices of attendants, and places of confinement for prisoners: in the centre of the upper story was a diminutive open court, supported by the vaults of the ground-floor, and into which a series of elegantly proportioned rooms opened on all sides. Although the greater part of the vaults and interior walls are fallen in, the rooms are all to be traced, and inscriptions in the old Gothic letter run round the walls of some of the apartments. A second enclosure rises to about two-thirds of the elevation of the inner quadrangle, and is provided with corresponding turrets; but the proportions of these are more spacious, and their construction and ornament more massive. Beyond this are the exterior defences rising out of the moat, and very little above the surrounding ground.

Viewed from without, nothing indicates that this edifice is a ruin. Over the entrance are the arms of the Counts of Fuensalida. It is supposed by many that this castle was erected by Garcilaso de la Vega, grandfather of the "Prince of Spanish poets," as the celebrated bard of Toledo is entitled. Others maintain its founder to have been Pedro Lopez de Ayala, first Count of Fuensalida. This latter story is the more probable one; since, besides its being confirmed by the armorial shield above mentioned, it has been adopted by Haro in his Nobiliario, a work drawn up with care and research, in which Garcilaso de la Vega is stated to have purchased some towns from the family of Ayala,—among others Cuerva, in the near neighbourhood, but not Guadamur.

The Ayalas were descended from the house of Haro, lords of Biscay. Several of them had held high offices at the Court of Castile. The grandfather of the founder of the castle had been High Chancellor of Castile, and Great Chamberlain of Juan the First; and his father, the first lord of Fuensalida, was High Steward, and first Alcalde of Toledo. He lost an eye at the siege of Antequera,—taken from the Moors by Ferdinand, afterwards King of Aragon, in the year 1410, and thus acquired the surname of the One-eyed. To him Juan II. first granted the faculty of converting his possessions into hereditary fiefs: "Because," according to one of the clauses of the act, "it was just that the houses of the grandees should remain entire in their state for the eldest son; and in order that the eldest sons of the grandees might be maintained in the estates of their predecessors, that the name and memory of the grandees of the kingdom might not be lost, and that the hereditary possessions and houses, and the generations of the sons of grandees might be preserved."

It was Pedro Lopez de Ayala, son of the one-eyed lord of Fuensalida created Count by Enrique the Fourth, that built the castle. He was a great favourite with the king, and his constant companion, notwithstanding his being afflicted with deafness—a bad defect in a courtier, and which procured him also a surname. He succeeded his father in his different dignities. His loyalty did not keep pace with his obligations to Henry the Fourth; for, being first Alcalde of Toledo, he made no effort to prevent that town from joining the party of the Prince Alonzo, who pretended to his brother's crown; but he was recalled to his allegiance by the devoted exertions of his wife.

This lady was Doña Maria de Silva, a daughter of Alonzo Tenorio de Silva, Adelantado of Cazorla. On the breaking out of the rebellion of Toledo, she agreed with her brother Pedro de Silva, Bishop of Badajos, to send a joint letter to the king, in which they pressed him to come to Toledo in disguise. Enrique the Fourth approved of the plan; and arriving in the night, accompanied by a single attendant, was received by the bishop at his residence in the convent of San Pedro Martir. Notwithstanding the darkness, he had been recognised by a servant of Marshal Payo de Ribera, a partisan of Prince Alonzo. This noble, immediately on learning the king's arrival, joined with the Alcalde, who had not been let into the secret by his wife, and called the citizens to arms by sounding the great bell of the cathedral. A crowd was speedily assembled at the king's lodging, who would have been immediately made prisoner, but for his attendant Fernando de Ribadenegra, who succeeded, single handed, in repulsing a party who had forced an entrance.

At this crisis the disloyal magistrate became alarmed, and sent his two sons, Pedro de Ayala, and Alonzo de Silva, accompanied by Perafande Ribera, son of the above-mentioned marshal, to entreat the king to quit the town. Henry consented; and at midnight left the convent, accompanied by the three youths. He had ridden sixteen leagues that day, and his horses being exhausted with fatigue, he requested the two sons of Ayala to lend him theirs. They did so, and accompanied him on foot as far as the city gates, where he left them, and set off for Madrid.

In order to pacify the people, Pedro Lopez ordered his brother-in-law, the bishop, to quit the town, and he repaired to the Huerta del Rey, a country-house in the environs. On arriving at Olias the king sent the two brothers, in recompense of their good service, a deed of gift of seventy thousand maravedis of annual revenue.

The grief of Maria de Silva at the failure of her project was such as almost to deprive her of her reason, and added to the eloquence of her entreaties to win over her husband to the king's interests. He now, therefore, exerted himself to gain the principal citizens, and succeeded so completely, that within three days from the departure of Enrique the Fourth, he was enabled to recall the Bishop of Badajos to Toledo, and to banish in his stead the Marshal de Payo and his son, who retired to their estates. Unanimous was now the cry of "Viva Enrique Quarto, y Mueren los rebeldes!" and the following day, a Sunday, the king re-entered Toledo in the midst of the general joy and festivity, and preceded directly to the residence of the Alcalde, in order to thank his wife for her loyal efforts. A lodging was there in readiness to receive him, which he occupied during his stay in Toledo. Pedro Lopez de Ayala received on the king's return to Madrid the title of Count of his town of Fuensalida, and shortly afterwards, at Medina del Campo, a grant of the towns of Casaruvias del monte, Chocas, and Arroyomolinos.

The town and castle of Escalona are situated at eight leagues, or thirty-two miles, to the east of Toledo. It is one of the towns, about a dozen in number, the foundation of which is attributed by the Count de Mora, in his history of Toledo, to the Jews. He fixes the date at about five centuries before the Christian era, when a large number of Israelites, to whom Cyrus, king of Babylon, had granted their liberty, arrived in Spain under the guidance of a Captain Pirrus, and fixed themselves principally in and around Toledo. He also states that the synagogue of Toledo—since called Santa Maria la Blanca—was erected by them. The name given by them to Escalona was Ascalon. The neighbouring Maqueda was another of their towns, and was called Mazeda. It was created a duchy by Ferdinand and Isabella in favour of their courtier Cardenas. I cannot learn the date of the castle of Escalona. Alonzo the Sixth won the town from the Moors; and it is probable that the castle was erected, at least in part, by Diego and Domingo Alvarez, two brothers, to whom he granted the place. After their death it reverted to the crown of Castile, and continued to be royal property until Juan II. gave it to his favourite Don Alvaro de Luna.