Mariana’s Account of the Divine Judgment on Ferdinand IV
By order of King Ferdinand IV of Castile, two brothers, Pedro and Juan Carvajales, were arrested, being accused of the murder of a nobleman of the house of Benavides, who was killed in Palencia when leaving the royal palace. The identity of the murderer was not ascertained, and many were ill-treated upon suspicion, in particular these two knights, who, after their defence was heard, were condemned for this crime against the king, without a proper trial, although they had not confessed their guilt, a dangerous course to pursue in such cases.
They were condemned to be thrown down from a steep rock near by, none being able to appease the king, who was intractable when enraged, and knew not how to restrain his anger. The courtiers, being well aware of this, took advantage of it to maliciously inform against and ruin those who stood in their way. At the moment of execution, the knights proclaimed aloud that their death was an injustice and a great wrong, calling upon God as witness before heaven and earth; they declared that since the king turned a deaf ear to their defence and protestations, they appealed to the divine tribunal, and summoned him to appear before it within thirty days. By a remarkable coincidence these words, at first looked upon as vain, came to be regarded in a very different light.
Heedless of the incident, the king set out for Alcaudete, where his army was encamped; there he fell seriously ill, and was compelled to return to Jaen, notwithstanding that the Moors were negotiating to deliver up the town. His condition grew daily worse, and his suffering increased so greatly that he was unable to treat with them personally. Rejoiced, however, at the news brought him, that the town was taken, he mentally planned new conquests, but on Thursday, the 7th day of September, having retired to rest after dining, he was shortly afterwards found dead. He died in the flower of his age, being twenty-four years and nine months old, at a time when his affairs were prospering. He reigned seventeen years four months and nineteen days, and was the fourth of the name. It was believed that his death was caused by excess in eating and drinking; others declared that it was the judgment of God, as, marvellous to relate, it occurred precisely thirty days after he was summoned[31] to appear, and therefore he is known as Don Fernando el Emplazado, that is, “the summoned.”[g]
ALFONSO XI (1312-1350 A.D.)
[1312-1337 A.D.]
Over Ferdinand’s grave, party passion once more lifted its bloody standard. As the heir to the throne, Alfonso XI, was only two years old at his father’s death, Don Juan advanced claims to the government of the kingdom, but found himself thus brought into collision with Ferdinand’s brother, Don Pedro, and the royal ladies. The kingdom was soon again divided into two hostile camps, which carried on a savage war with one another. Order and discipline were at an end, the royal authority disappeared, the possessions of the crown were alienated, commons, corporations, and powerful nobles seized what they wanted and freed themselves from all authority; the young king’s mother, Constanza, and his grandmother, Maria, had entrusted his education to the archbishop of Avila, who had to hide his pupil in his cathedral to preserve him from being kidnapped.
To restore some measure of order recourse was at length had to a division of the governing power. Each was to rule where he had the greatest following, Juan in the north and west, Pedro in the south and east. At the same time the pope interfered to effect a reconciliation (1315). The rulers of the kingdom now undertook a campaign against Ismail, who had snatched the lordship of Granada from his uncle, Mulei Nazar, the ally of Castile, a Moorish commander who had been summoned from Fez to the aid of his co-religionists, and defeated Juan and Pedro in a battle at the river Venil, in which they lost their lives (1319).
And now whilst the Saracens were profiting by their victory to make raids and conquests in the kingdom of Castile, four infantes laid claim to the regency and again filled the kingdom with civil wars and party rage. In vain did the states endeavour to bring about a settlement, in vain did the queen-mother Maria and the pope labour to effect a reconciliation; the strife continued for years, almost uninterruptedly; even when, at fifteen years old, the king was declared of age and took the reins of government into his own hand, the confusion was not ended. Alfonso XI had grown up amidst violence and party intrigues, and exhibited a harsh and savage temper. He enticed his cousin, Don Juan the younger, who had followed in his father’s footsteps, to the court at Toledo, had him murdered at a banquet, and seized from his family the patrimony of Biscay; he repudiated his betrothed, Constanza, daughter of the infante Juan Emmanuel (a nephew of Alfonso X), that he might marry a Portuguese princess, which so enraged the injured father that he again set up the standard of revolt (1328), and supported by the Castilian grandees and the king of Aragon, conducted a long war against Alfonso.