The prince said to Don Pedro that it was not well done of him, for he knew full well that one of the chief articles of those agreed, sworn, and signed between them, was that the king should not put to death any gentleman of Castile, nor any person of note, while the prince was there, until he had been justly judged, save those whom he had previously sentenced, among whom this Iñigo Lopez was not included. And that it appeared from this that the king did not intend to fulfil his engagements towards him, and he presumed that his fidelity on all points would be the same as in this matter. The king excused himself as best he might, but neither he nor the prince was well pleased that day. The day after the battle Don Pedro asked the prince that all the knights and squires of note, natives of Castile, who were taken prisoners in the battle, should be delivered to him, and that a reasonable price should be set upon them, and he would pay it to those who held them prisoners. And that the prince should be security for such payments to the knights and men-at-arms who held them prisoners; and the king, Don Pedro, would pledge himself to the prince for the sum to which they amounted. And the king said that, if these knights were delivered to him, he would deal and speak with them in such a way that they should remain on his side; but if their ransom should be procured by other means, or they should escape from the imprisonment in which their captors held them, they would always remain his enemies and be active in his dis-service. Don Pedro insisted strongly on this point, on Sunday, the day after the battle, which was fought on the Saturday before Lazarus Sunday, the 3rd of April. The prince of Wales said to Don Pedro that, saving his royal majesty, his request was beyond reason, for these lords, knights, and men-at-arms, who were there in the king’s service and his own, had laboured for honour, and if they had taken any prisoners they were theirs. And the knights who held them were of such sort that for all the wealth of the world, though it were a thousand times the worth of their prisoners, they would never deliver them to him, for they would think his purpose was to kill them. And he bade the king urge the point no more, for it was a thing to which he never could agree; however, if there were any among the captive knights against whom he had passed sentence before the battle, he would order them to be delivered to him.
The king said to the prince that if things were to fall out thus, his kingdom was now more surely lost than ever, for these prisoners were those by whose fault he had lost his kingdom, and if they were to escape thus, and not be delivered to him, that he might come to terms with them and win them to his cause, he held that the prince’s help was of small account, and that he had expended his treasure in vain. Then the prince was angry at the words the king, Don Pedro, had spoken to him, and thus made answer:
“Sir kinsman, methinks you are now more like to recover your kingdom than when it was yours indeed, and you governed it so ill that you were fain to lose it. And I would counsel you to cease these executions and seek some means whereby you may recover the good will of the lords, knights, and noblemen, and the towns and cities of your kingdom; but if, on the contrary, you govern yourself as you did formerly, you are in sore peril of losing your kingdom and life, and of being brought to such a pass that neither the king of England, my lord and father, nor myself, will avail to help you, though we were so minded.”
Such was the discourse held between Don Pedro and the prince that day, Sunday, after the battle, when they lay in that camp[h]
A NEW REVOLT; THE END OF PEDRO THE CRUEL
[1367-1368 A.D.]
Pedro’s cruelty soon raised new discontent of which Henry was ready to take advantage, while the English prince was too disgusted[36] to support further with his bravery the odious tyranny of the Spanish Nero.[a]
Towards the close of the year (1367), Henry entered Spain by Roussillon, at the head of a very small force, not exceeding four hundred lances. At first the king of Aragon attempted to arrest his progress through that kingdom, but with little zeal; the soldiers sent to oppose him connived at his passage into Navarre. Having passed the Ebro at Azagra, and set foot on the Castilian territory, he drew a cross on the sand, and by it swore that he would not desist from his undertaking while life remained. The neighbouring inhabitants of Calahorra readily received him within their walls. He was joined by many of the Castilian barons with considerable reinforcements, and by the archbishop of Toledo. Leon was besieged and taken; the Asturias submitted; Illescas, Buytrago, and Madrid opened their gates after a short struggle; and Toledo, which promised a more obstinate resistance, was invested. It is useful to observe that the resistance of these places was the work of the citizens who were generally attached to Pedro; while the barons and hidalgos were generally for Henry. This circumstance gives great weight to the suspicion that, while Pedro ruled the privileged orders with an iron sceptre, he favoured the independence of the people.
[1368-1369 A.D.]