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| Alfonso I of Asturias @Wikipedia |
His lover was:
Sisalda
A Muslim slave.
Natural offspring:
a. Mauregato ( d . 789), king of Asturias.
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| Alfonso VI of Castile @Wikipedia |
(1040-1109)
King of Leon
1065-1109
King of Castile &
King of Galicia
1072-1109
His lovers were:
1) Jimena Muñoz (1055/65-1128)
Daughter of: Count Munio Muñiz & Velasquita.
Natural Offspring:
a. Infanta Elvira who married Fernando Fernandez (1117)
" . . . On 17 Dec. 1120 the infanta sold her estate at Fuentes de los Oteros, which she had previously received in arras from her husband Count Fernando... For reasons that are unclear, the couple had separated by 112. . . ." (The Aristocracy in Twelfth-Century León and Castile: 236)
2) Zaida de Sevilla (1063-1101)
"After the death of Constance, Zaida, a Moorish princess, daughter of Benabet, king of Seville, became, according to some authors, the wife of Alfonso. Zaida is said to have been induced to adopt the Christian faith by a dream, in which St. Isidorus appeared to her and persuaded her to become a convert. . . Her father . . . made no opposition to her wishes, but . . . agreed that she should undertake an excursion to a place from whence Prince Alfonso, second son of the reigning king of Castile, could assist her escape to Leon. . . [T]he princess was received with all kindness by the Christian sovereigns, instructed in the dogmas of her new creed, and baptized Isabel, or, as some assert, Mary. Zaida subsequently became the third wife of Alfonso, though Pelagius, bishop of Oviedo, denies her ever marrying that sovereign, and asserts she was only his mistress. Of Zaida was born Don Sancho, who died in battle when but eleven years of age. . . ." (Annals of the Queens of Spain, Vol 1: 183)
" . . . Alfonso VI married five foreign wives and his mistress Zaida had been a Muslim, the daughter-in-law of the ruler of Seville, the most imposing among the amirs of the Taifa principalities of al-Andalus. (She became a convert to Christianity in the course of her attachment to Alfonso.). . . ." (The World of El Cid: Chronicles of the Spanish Reconquest: 23)
" . . . Alfonso himself had spent some of his youth in exile at the Muslim court of Toledo, and when his fifth wife failed to produce a male heir, he took al-Mutamid's daughter-in-law, Sayida, as his wife or mistress, and she took the name of Maria or Isabel. This was in the year 484/1091 or 485/1092. She died in childbirth a few years later, and her son Sancho would have succeeded his father if he had not been killed in the Battle of Ucles in 501/1108. . . . " (The Legacy of Muslim Spain: 465)
Effects on Lovers' Family, Other People and Society: " . . . In view of the fact that it is forbidden in Islam for a Muslim girl to marry a Christian, this even reflects the tragic downfall of the Sevilian kingdom. . . . " (The Legacy of Muslim Spain: 465)
3) Jimena Nuñez de Guzman (d. 1083/1085)
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| Alfonso VII of Castile @Wikipedia |
King of Leon, Castile & Galicia
1126-1157
His lovers were:
1) Guntroda Pérez (d.1186)
Lover in 1130/1132
Daughter of: Pedro Diaz & Maria Ordonez.
Wife of: Gutierre Sebastianiz (d.1137), Tenente de Aguilar.[Gen1]
Natural Offspring: Urraca Alfonso de Castilla (1132-1164) married 1. Garcia VI Ramirez de Navarre, 2. Alvaro Rodriguez de Castro
" . . . This mistress, whom the king loved with the most ardent passion, was Gontrada, an Asturian lady of high rank. She had a daughter, Urraca, by the king, for whom her fond father procured a throne, by marrying her to Garcia Ramirez, king of Navarre. Gontrade (sic) subsequently retired to a monastery of nuns, which she had built in Oviedo, and there ended her days. . . ." (Annals of the Queens of Spain: 198)
2) Sancha Fernandez
3) Urraca Fernández de Castro
Lover in 1139/1148
Natural Offspring: Estefania Alfonso de Castilla (1148-1180) married Fernando Rodriguez de Castro, Señor de la Casa de Castro, Governor in Cuellar, Dueñas, Valladolid, Toro and Asturias.
(1155-1214)
His lover was:
"A legend that has given rise to a vast literature tells of the love of Alfonso VIII of Castile (d.1214) for the beautiful Rachel, 'La Fermosa,' to whom he remained faithful for seven years, and it attributes the power and prestige that the Jews enjoyed in the court of Castile at this time to this love affair...." (The History of Anti-Semitism, Volume 2: 125)
"...A story is told, in some of the ancient chronicles, of Alfonso's attachment to a beautiful Jewess of the name of Rachel, with whom he remained seven years in Toledo, secluding himself from all society but hers, and neglecting the cares of government, until his nobles, incensed at the king's blind infatuation, slew the fair one on the presence of her lover. Though at first the monarch was inconsolable for the loss of his mistress, he was roused to a sense of his folly by the remonstrances of some of his faithful counsellors, and, shaking off the apathy in which he had hitherto loved, applied himself to the duties of his high post with renewed energy. This account is, however, discredited by the majority of the historians, who give, as a cogent reason for their disbelief, the difficulty of finding, in the life of Alfonso, the period of inactivity mentioned in the tradition, as, during his whole reign, he was constantly employed in wars with the neighbouring kings of Leon and Navarre, and, above all, with the Moors. . . . " (Annals of the Queens of Spain: 208-209)
"A Jewess of Toledo named "Rahel," afterward called 'Fermosa' (The Beautiful) because of her rare beauty. She held Alfonso VIII. of Castile, husband of the beautiful and clever Donna Leonora, under her spell for almost seven years. With the consent of the clergy she was seized in the presence of the king by members of the Spanish nobility, and murdered, together with those of her coreligionists who gathered about her. This love-story, which had been relegated to the realm of fable by the Marquis de Mondejar ("Memorias Historicas," xxiii. 67 et seq.) and other Spanish literary historians, is related as a fact by Alfonso X., grandson of Alfonso VIII. and by the latter's son Don Sancho. It has been dramatized by Martin de Ulloa, Vicente Garcia de la Huete, and other Spanish writers, as well as by Grillparzer in his play, 'Die Jüdin von Toledo.'" (Jewish Encyclopedia)
Personal & Family Background: "...She was said to be the daughter of the Jewish finance minister to King Alphonso VIII of Castile (1155-1214) and became Alphonso's mistress. It was claimed that Alphonso's ardor enabled Raquel to exert a positive influence on the king's policies toward the Jews... Raquel was ultimately murdered in the palace that Alphonso had built for her." (The JPS Guide to Jewish Women: 84)
Alfonso IX de Leon
(1171-1230)
[Fam1]
His lovers were:
1) Aldonza Martinez de Silva (d. after 1232).
Lady of the Honor of Mansilla
Lover in 1206-1210
Daughter of: Martin Gomez, Marques de Silva & Urraca Rodriguez.
Natural Offspring: Aldonza Alfonso de Leon (1212-1266) married 1) Diego Ramirez Froilaz, Lord of Mansilla and Rueda, mar bef 1232; 2) Pedro Ponce de Cabrera (d.1264), Lord of Valle de Aria, Alferez Mayor of Alfonso IX of Leon, mar 1230. [Fam1] [Gen1]
2) Estefánia Pérez de Limia
Lover in 1210-1215
3) Inés Iñíguez de Mendoza
Lover in 1195
4) Maura
Lover in 1215-1220
5) Teresa Gil de Soverosa
Lover in 1220-1230
(1230-1304)
the Senator
His lover was:
Jeanne de Ponthieu
Queen of Castile
His stepmother
" . . . Don Enrique, a rebellious, adventurous figure inclined to fall in love, was mocked by satirical poetry in the period that paint him as the lover of his stepmother, whose coif he would take with him to battle as a lucky charm. . . ." (Salvador Martinez, 2010, p. 111)
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| Alfonso X of Castile @Wikipedia |
(1221-1264)
King of Castile
1252-1284
Son of: Fernando III de Leon and Castile & Beatrix von
Husband of: Violante de Aragon (1236-1302), mar 1249
A learned man, a lover of the arts, of science, and of literature.
"Alfonso X himself was reputed to be a learned man, a lover of the arts, of science, and of literature. He liked to wear silken robes adorned with gold and precious stones. The king, he thought, should be recognized by his very presence. Alfonso honored all persons of culture; he freed teachers of all tributes and granted them the status of caballeros ('gentlemen'). He was benevolent with those of another religious belief, and besought his countrymen not to exert any pressure on the Jews in order to convert them to Christianity. During his reign the Church of Santa Maria la Blanca (which still stands in Toledo a bit over-restored) was used by all three religions: Moslems on Fridays, Jews on Saturdays, Christians on Sunday." (Spain: The Root and the Flower: 98)
His lovers were:
1) Elvira Rodríguez de Villada.
Lover in 1242-1243.
Daughter of Rodrigo Fernandez de Villada.
Natural offspring:
a. Alfonso Fernandez (1243-1281), mar 1269 Blanca Alfonso de Molina (1243-1292)
2) Maria de León (1240-?).
Lover in 1240-1241
Daughter of: Alfonso IX de Leon and Galicia & his mistress Teresa Gil de Soverosa.
Wife of: Alvaro Fernandez de Lara, mar c1236
Natural offspring:
a. Berenguela Alfonso (d.1241)
Her other lover was: Suer Ayres de Valladares.
3) Maria de Aulada.
4) Mayor de Guzman (1230-1262)
Lover in 1243-1248
Daughter of: Guillen Perez de Guzman, Señor de Becilla & Maria Gonzalez Giron
Natural offspring:
a. Beatriz Alfonso, Señora de Alcocer (1232-1303) mar 1253 Alfonso III de Portugal.
"He [Alfonso X] was twenty-one years old when their daughter, Beatriz de Castilla (1244-1303), was born. The love affair of Alfonso and Doña Mayor took place at the same time that the crown prince's wedding with Violante de Aragón was negotiated, a commitment that was signed in 1243, although the wedding would not be celebrated until 1249. The marriage with Violante was impossible in 1243, that she was still a girl. During the years of waiting for the wedding, Alfonso had love with Mayor Guillén and other women who also gave him children. María Jesús Fuente , professor of Medieval History at the Carlos III University, illustrates in this issue, from the love of the couple, the status of Christian, Muslim and Jewish women in medieval Spain." (Doña Mayor Guillén y Alfonso X el Sabio, la amante)
5) Unnamed mistress.
Natural offspring:
a. Urraca Alfonso married Pedro Nunez de Guzman
6) Unnamed mistress.
Natural offspring:
a. Martin Alfonso 12th Abad de Valladolid, 1284-1297
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| Sancho IV of Castile @Wikipedia |
(1258-1295)
King of Castile & Leon
1284-1295
Son of Alfonso X de Castilla & Violante de Aragon.
Husband of Maria de Molina, mar 1282
His lover was:
Maria de Meneses, Señora de Ucero.
Daughter of Alfonso de Meneses “El Tizón” & Mayor González Girón.
Natural Offspring:
a. Violante Sanchez de Castilla (1280-1326) married Fernando Rodriguez de Castro.
" . . . Although Infante Sancho had many amorous affairs, and several illegitimate children, Gaibrios de Ballesteros asserts that Maria de Molina was so captivated by Sancho that she stood as godmother to his illegitimate daughter, Violante, whose mother, dona Maria de Meneses de Ucero, was Maria de Molina's cousin. . . ." (María de Molina, Queen and Regent: Life and Rule in Castile-León, 1259–1321: 18)
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| Alfonso XI of Castile @Wikipedia |
(1311-1350)
King of Castile
King of Leon &
King of Galicia
1312-1350
Son of: Fernando IV de Castilla & Constanza de Portugal.
Husband of:
1. Constanza de Peñafiel, Infanta de Castilla
2. Maria de Portugal (1313-1357) mar 1328, sep 1334, daughter of Afonso IV de Portugal & Beatriz de Castilla.
"Maria de Portugal is generally considered a virago by historians: Antonio Perez de Gomez, for one, notes that she often sided with her son's enemies and behaved with 'an imprudent impropriety' that forced Pedro to murder several of her lovers.. . . ." (Spanish Women in the Golden Age: Images and Realities: 71)
" . . . His [Alfonso XI's] union with Doña Maria, prompted by policy alone, had not been a happy one. Scarcely had the Infanta of Portugal presented him with an heir, than he forsook her and attached himself to Doña Leonor de Guzman, a young widow belonging to an illustrious family in Seville, by whom he had ten children, nine sons and one daughter, all of whom were the objects of his predilection, and richly appanaged. . . ." (Stone, 1865, pp. 72)
His lover was:
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| Leonor de Guzman @Gibraltar Blogspot |
Leonor de Guzman (c1310-1351)
Señora de Medina Sidonia.
Lover in 1328?
Castilian aristocrat & royal mistress.
Daughter of: Pedro Nunez de Guzman, Conde de Puebla & Beatriz Ponce de Leon.
Wife of: Juan de Velasco (1308-1328)
Natural offspring:
a. Pedro de Castilla (1330-1338), Señor de Aguilar, Great Chancellor of Castile
b. Sancho de Castilla (1331-1343), Señor de Ledesma
c. Enrique II de Castilla
d. Fadrique Alfonso de Castilla (d.1333/34), Señor de Haro
e. Fernando Alfonso de Castilla (1336-1342), Señor de Ledesma
f. Tello Alfonso de Castilla (1337-1370), Señor de Aguilar, Conde de Castaneda husband of Juana de Lara, Señora de Lara y Vizcaya, married 1353
g. Juan de Castilla (1341-1359), Señor de Badajoz
h. Sancho de Castilla (1342-1374), Conde de Albuquerque husband of Beatriz de Portugal (1347-1381)
i. Pedro de Castilla (1345-1359), Señor de Aguilar
j. Juana de Castilla
Wife of: 1) Fernando Castro, Señor de Lemos (d.1375); 2) Tamarit de Litera; 3) Felipe, Señor de Castro
"In 1328 when King Alfonso XI (1312-50) married his cousin, Maria de Portugal, he already had an 'official concubine,' Leonor de Guzman. She was a member of the Castilian nobility, who like Sibilla, had lost her husband at a young age. By the time of Alfonso's marriage, she had already borne the king several children and he was clearly in love with her. The king approached the dilemma that faced him by setting up two households: one for his wife, who duly produced an heir, Pedro, and another for his concubine, who produced no less than ten children. Although Maria was the rightful queen, it was Leonor who continued to receive the king's attention and who accompanied him, whether in court of on campaign. Thanks to the valuable concessions that Alfonso granted her children, the royal patrimony declined, while her family became the most powerful feudal line of Castille. But the wheel of fortune turned for Leonor in 1350 when her patron and paramour died. With no formal position, and bearing hatred of the dowager queen and the young heir, Pedro, each of who had felt humiliated by her successes, she was absolutely vulnerable. One year later she was imprisoned and executed. As enamored as Alfonso may have been, it never seems to have occurred to the king simply to marry Leonor in the first place; she may have been his lover but he did not regard her as proper material for a queen." (Women & Wealth in Late Medieval Europe: 71)
First encounter - 1330.
"Spain saw several royal mistresses who were of great importance and had dramatic lives (and deaths). One was Eleanor de Guzman, mistress of Alfonso XI of Castile (1312-1350). Alfonso had married Maria, the teenage daughter of the king of Portugal, but, after two years, she had borne no children. 'And because the king was a very accomplished man in all his actions', says the chronicler of his reign, 'he felt himself diminished by the fact that he had no sons by the queen; and, for this reason, he sought a way to have sons otherwise. In 1330 Alfonso met the noble young widow, Eleanor de Guzman, in Seville, and they formed a liaison that was to last the whole of the king's life and produce numerous offspring. . . ." (Blood Royal: Dynastic Politics in Medieval Europe: 160)
" . . . This lady, who belonged to one of the most illustrious houses of Spain, he first saw at Seville, in 1330, and became deeply enamoured of her. A widow at eighteen years of age, she had not virtue to resist the royal lover: she sacrificed her pride of birth, the honour of her family, her reputation and peace of mind, to the vanity of pleasing, or to the ambition of ruling, a monarch. . . ." (The History of Spain and Portugal, Vol 2: 205)
" . . . The king saw her for the first time in Seville in 1330, and the impression her matchless charms made was indelible, her wit and amiability strengthening and maintaining the king's passion for the space of twenty years. . . ." (Annals of the Queens of Spain: 273)
Leonor's physical appearance & personal qualities.
"By her strength of intellect and decision of character, the king's favourite, Doña Leonor, showed herself not unworthy of her lofty position; and Alfonso perhaps owed to her wise counsels some portion of his success. She appeared with him in public; it was in her presence that the officers of justice and chief magistrates despatched their business; it was to her they were accountable during the king's absence. . . ." (Stone, 1865, pp. 72).
" . . . While a teenager, he had fallen in love with Leonor, a beautiful widow of Seville . . . Alfonso XI fell victim to the Plague in 1350, and Pedro succeeded to the throne. Pedro had Leonor disgraved, and his mother had her executed. . . ." (Pierson, p. 43)
" . . . This lady was the loveliest woman of her time. Her rank was exalted, her manners were gentle and fascinating, and her intellect highly cultivating. Leonor maintained her empire in the heart of Alfonso for upwards of twenty years; but her great influence was ever exercised with moderation and wisdom. . . ." (Dublin University Magazine, Vol. 39, 1852, p. 61)
Leonor de Guzman's personal & family background.
"By birth, this lady was of the ancient family of Guzman, one of the most noble in Castile, being the daughter of Don Pedro Nunez de Guzman, by Beatrix Ponce de Leon. At the time Alfonso first saw her, she was the widow of Don John de Velasco, and lived very retired in Seville; but the fame of her beauty was universal over Spain. The King became so infinitely captivated with her person, that he totally deserted his queen, and for the rest of his days devoted himself to the charms of the lovely Leonora, who was treated like his consort, and nothing done without the advice of this beautiful woman. . . ." (The History of the Reign of Peter the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon: 5)
Beneficiaries and patronages.
" . . . Alfonso favored his mistress, Leonor de Guzman, and their illegitimate children, Enrique, Fadrique, and Don Tello. Doña Leonor had been a close and active confidante of the king, as well as a devoted mother and lover, and had feared for her future even before Alfonso's death. She had sought to strengthen her position through a marriage alliance between one of her sons, Don Tello, and Doña Juana, daughter of Juan Nunez III. (Doubleday, 2001, p. 112)
"The death of the Master in 1338 caused some division in the Order. . . . Some of the Thirteen, however, elected as master without the king's knowledge D. Vasco Lopez, nephew of the deceased Master. This act displeased Alfonso XI who bluntly told the knights that he wanted the mastership for his son, the Infante D. Fadrique. . . . The Trece were willing to give the mastership to D. Fadrique, then a boy, but considering that his son was too young to lead the knights in the war he was about to undertake, Alfonso XI caused D.Alfonso Mendez de Guzman, his mistress' brother, to be given the habit and elected Master. Thus, Mendez de Guzman became Master of St. James through the king's favor in spite of the opposition of the also powerful D. Gonzalo Martinez, Master of Alcantara and enemy of Doña Leonor de Guzman, Alfonso's mistress." (Blanco, 1971, p. 27)
Natural offspring.
"By his Queen, Alfonso left but one child, Pedro, his successor, who was then in his sixteenth year. By his Mistress Donna Leonora de Guzman, a woman of distinguished rank, he had several children, whose fortunes we shall find conspicuous in the troubled period which ensued. . . ."
Effects on other people and society.
"The resentment of the Queen Mother against the Mistress soon exploded. Conscious of her danger, Donna Leonora de Guzman had retired to Medina Sidonia, a strong place bequeathed to her by the late King, but induced by the treacherous representations of Albuquerque and Lara, she consented to appear at Seville, where she was perfidiously arrested and imprisoned. Her fate was briefly suspended by the severe illness of the King, but on his recovery, she was removed first to Cremona, and finally to Talavera, where she was executed...." (Coledige, pp. 156-157)
This high-born dame, whose long term of prosperity and tragical end have concurred, doubtless, as much as her being the mother of a prince who subsequently ascended the throne, to give her a conspicuous place in history, was the daughter of Don Pedro Nunez de Guzman and the widow of Don Juan de Velasco. By birth and alliance, Leonor was the of the richest and noblest families in Spain, and unanimously allowed to be the most beautiful woman in the kingdom, while even her enemies pronounced her intellect equal to her beauty...." (Annals of the Queens of Spain: 273)
Affair's end & aftermath.
" . . . The rivalry between the legitimate son and the illegitimate ones was to shape Castilian politics in a fundamental way. Alfonso's concerns are illustrated by a remarkable clause he insisted on including in the treaty he made with the king of France in 1345: that if any future king of Castile should not respect the grants and favours he had bestowed on Eleanor de Guzman and her children, the whole treaty would be void. It is an attempt to secure the support of the powerful French king for the position of Alfonso's mistress and their many children. Alfonso's apprehensions on this point were realistic. After his death and the succession of his legitimate son, Peter, the new young king sent his father's mistress under guard to Queen Maria's castle of Talavera, where, on Maria's instructions, Eleanor was soon killed." (Blood Royal: Dynastic Politics in Medieval Europe: 160)
References:
Blood Royal: Dynastic Politics in Medieval Europe @Google Books
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| Pedro I of Castile @Wikipedia |
(1334-1369)
King of Leon & Castile
1350-1369
Son of: Alfonso XI de Castilla & Maria de Portugal.
Husband of:
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| Maria de Padilla @Wikipedia |
1. Maria de Padilla (1334-13610, mar 1353 (in secret)
"Alfonso's son and successor, Peter, nicknamed 'the Cruel', also had a complex series of relationships with women. A marriage agreement was drawn up between the young king and a French princess, Blanche of Bourbon, in July 1352, but, when Blanche arrived in Valladolid for the wedding the following February, Peter was not there, since he was 250 miles away in Cordoba awaiting the birth of his first child by his mistress Maria de Padilla. Once that child, a girl named Beatrice, had been born, and endowed with an estate, Peter finally came to Valladolid for his wedding, which was celebrated with pomp and festivity. But then, two days later, he abandoned Blanche and returned to Maria. Subsequently, under pressure from his mother and his senior ministers, he revisited Blanche but only for two days. After that, says a contemporary chronicler, 'he never saw the queen, Doña Blanche his wife.'"
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| Blanche de Bourbon @Wikipedia |
2. Blanche de Bourbon (1339-1361) mar 1353
3. Juana de Castro (d.1374), mar 1354.
" . . . Just then, even Maria de Padilla seemed to have lost her hold on Peter; and while she had thoughts of retiring into a nunnery, he had fallen in love with Joanna de Castro, a lady of noble house, the widow of Don Diego de Haro. The reckless tyrant married this woman, having gained over her kinsmen, and either bribed or frightened tow bishops into receiving his secret information on oath that his union with Blanche was null and void; after which, when his lust was sated, he quickly abandoned her." (A Short Course of History: 430)
Pedro I's spouses & children.
He married 1) Blanche de Bourbon; 2) Maria de Padilla; 3) Juana de Castro. " . . . (H)e was known to have murdered his wife, Blanche of Bourbon, the loveliest and saintliest of the daughters of St. Louis, by the foul hands of his Jewish minions:---nothing is more piteous than the description of her death in the old chronicle, wrapping herself modestly in her mantle, and lying down on her bed, with her taper in one hand and her 'Hours' in the other, commending herself 'to our Lord, to our Lady, to the twelve Apostles, and generally to the who Court of Paradise'---and praying for her demon husband---whilst the Jews, Daniot and his companion, crushed her to death." (Lives of the Lindsays: or, A memoir of the houses of Crawford and Balcarres: 498)
Pedro I's personality or character.
"No character in Europe for many a century had been viewed with such unmingled horror by all classes as that of Pedro surnamed the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon, about the middle of the fourteenth century. Like his contemporary Charles of Navarre, every outward charm and every inward vice were blended in his person. He was brace and accomplished---possessing all the points externally of a perfect knight---but unmatched in dissimulation---subtle as a serpent when his will mastered his passions, bloodthirsty as the tiger, from habit, even when his passions slept---rapacious withal, and licentious, heedless of every moral obligation, owning Self as his God in all things. . . . " (Lives of the Lindsays: or, A memoir of the houses of Crawford and Balcarres: 498)
His lovers were:
1) Aldonza Coronel (c1337-1369)
Lover in 1358.
Daughter of Alfonso Fernandez Coronel, privado or favourite of Alfonso XI de Castilla, & Elvira Alfonso
Wife of Alvar Perez de Guzman, mar 1356.
"Lover of the King Don Pedro the Cruel, King of Castile, second daughter of Alonso Coronel; after he vanquished and died in Aguilar and his husband Alvar Pérez de Guzmán fled, the king made her his lover, by force at first, but soon it ceased to be necessary, because she began to exercise her power with pride, especially against his rival Maria de Padilla, whose uncle Hinestrosa had him arrested. The king tired of her very soon and rejoined with Maria de Padilla." (mcnbiografias)
" . . . Alvar Perez de Guzman was more fortunate. He escaped to Aragon and continued to serve Enrique's cause. His wife Aldonza became Pedro's mistress for a short while, circa 1358; little else is known about the relationship except that it caused some concern to the Padillas. A similar story has survived concerning her sister, widow of de la Cerda, though there is no hard evidence to support it." (Pedro the Cruel of Castile: 1350-1369: 187)
"One of these was Alfonso Fernández Coronel, who was captured after the assault on his castle Aguilar de la Frontera ( Cordoba ) , on February 2, 1353. Immediately after seizing him he was convicted of treason in a summary trial, to Then he was executed and his body was burned so that it would not even be possible for his family to have a place to visit and remember him. This macabre ceremony was celebrated before the four sons of the prisoner, including his daughter María Coronel. Another of the daughters who witnessed this execution was Aldonza Coronel, wife of Don Alvar Pérez de Guzmán - a character who, having intrigued against the King - was forced to flee for what he was declared a traitor. As a result of this event Aldonza Coronel took refuge in the Sevillian convent of Santa Clara . Before the continued elimination of the king's enemies, Aldonza decided to leave the convent to beg the King for forgiveness for her husband. (We do not know if he got it, but what is certain is that his natural charms aroused the interest of the King). Heir to the instinct libertines of his father , at that time Pedro I had his wife locked in the castle of Arévalo (Ávila) and publicly maintained as barragana María de Padilla; and although she had given him several children, that was not an obstacle for Pedro to procure additional lovers when the occasion arose. As the woman liked him, from then on the King began to visit Aldonza in the convent; finally it ended up yielding to his pretensions, and Aldonza Coronel became the second lover of the king, who installed her in a room in the Torre del Oro ." (Doña María Coronel y el rey Pedro I @España Fascinante)
Natural offspring:
a. Sancho de Castilla (d.144?), Señor de Almazan.
b. Diego de Castilla
3) Maria de Padilla (1334-1361)
Lover in 1351-1361 (break in 1354)
Castilian aristocrat & royal mistress
Daughter of: Juan Garcia de Padilla, Señor de Villagera & Maria Gonzales, daughter of Fernan Gutierrez de Henestrosa.
Natural offspring:
a. Beatriz de Castilla (1354-?)
b. Constanza de Castilla (1354-1394) mar John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster
c. Isabel de Castilla (1355-1392) married Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York
d. Alfonso de Castilla (1359-1362)
"In all these deeds of evil, Pedro's mistress, Maria de Padilla, stood by his side, his prompter and his guide. She was beautiful and dark as night---a soul of fire, burning with ambition---a sceptic like himself, unscrupulous, and remorseless---but not, like him, wholly demonized---not bloodthirsty or cruel for the mere sake of cruelty, like Pedro." (Lives of the Lindsays: or, A Memoir of the Houses of Crawford and Balcarres: 498)
"Pedro's illicit relationship with his mistress was itself due to the queen's minister and cousin, Juan Alfonso de Alburquerque, who introduced the young king to Maria de Padilla, seeking to manipulate him through a sexual alliance. When Maria's family instead gained power over Pedro, the minister encouraged the king to marry the French princess Blanca de Borbon both to produce a legitimate heir and to collect the large dowry promised by France in return for Castile's support against England. The wedding ceremonies were abruptly terminated after only three days by Pedro's inexplicable departure and return to his mistress. . . ." (Spanish Women in the Golden Age: Images & Realities: 72)
"Hitherto Alburquerque had not had much trouble in ruling a youthful prince, who seemed to care for little besides hunting and bodily exercises: he now lost his power over him by the very means which he had taken to strengthen it. A mistress whom he had introduced---the sprightly Maria de Padilla, an orphan of a high-born but impoverished family, educated in his wife's household---and her ambitious kinsmen, had taught their youthful sovereign to act for himself,; as was first shown at the previously concerted interview of Cigales, near Valladolid, in which Peter's half-brothers Henry of Trastamara and Don Tello, whom he had gone put with Alburquerque to attach, three themselves at his feet, and were received with favour. Returning with the bastards and the astonished minister to Valladolid, June 1353, Peter solemnized with great pomp his marriage with Blanche of Bourbon, a fair and gentle French princess who had been chosen for him: but he forsook his bride, two days after the wedding, in spite of the tears and entreaties of his mother and of his aunt Leonora, the dowager queen of Arragon (sic). . . ." (A Short Course of History, Vol 2: 428)
" . . . In the family of Alonzo de Albuquerque the king's favourite, a beautiful and lively girl, donna Maria de Padilla, was brought up as an attendant on his wife; at a casual visit the king saw and became deeply enamoured of her: his passions were violent, and it appears that, regardless of his embassy to the young princess of Bourbon, he contracted a secret marriage with Maria, whom he appears to have loved better than any other being, notwithstanding the capricious nature of his violent passions. Albuquerque saw this attachment, which he considered as a mere youthful fancy, with pleasure, as he flattered himself that he should be able by Maria's means to govern the king eking as he pleased, and to retain over him the unlimited influence he had hitherto possessed. But he had deceived himself. She was of a temper too high and haughty to be made the tool of a court favourite; and from the day of her favour with the king may be dated the downfall of the power of Albuquerque. Her relations gradually rose into importance, yet they did not seem to enjoy any extraordinary favour, and, indeed, no such distinction was very desirable during the capricious reign of Peter the Cruel." (A History of Spain, Vol 2: 53)
Physical appearance & personal qualities.
" . . . Doña Maria de Padilla was small in stature, like the majority of Spanish women; pretty, lively, full of that voluptuous grace peculiar to the women of the south, and which our language has no word adequately to express. As yet she was only distinguished by the sprightliness of her wit, which amused the noble lady with whom she lived in a capacity almost servile. Being older than the king, she possessed the advantage of having already studied mankind; and while mingling with the crowd of attendants, had observed all that had passed at court. She soon proved herself worthy to reign." (Blackwood's Magazine, Vol 65; 134)
" . . . In spring 1352, Pedro first encountered Maria de Padilla, a lady-in-waiting to Albuquerque's wife, called by one chronicler 'the comeliest maiden (apuesta doncella) to be found at the time in the world.' A love-struck, seventeen year old monarch was so thoroughly infatuated the 'he was not himself until he had her.' Thus began a romantic attachment that would last with only slight interruption until her death a decade later. Originally, Doña Maria's installation as royal mistress had the full approval of Albuquerque who hoped that by bringing this about, he would gain even greater influence over the king. However, in late spring 1353, Padilla provided her royal lover with their first child, a daughter named Beatriz. It quickly became clear to the first minister and his followers that in promoting the king's attachment to Padilla, he had badly miscalculated. Not only had this raised up yest another competing faction, this one composed of her relatives and supporters, but her very presence now stood in the way of the French marriage of which he had been the principal architect; for 'the king loved Doña Maria de Padilla so much that he was no longer willing to marry Blanche de Bourbon.'" (To Win and Lose a Medieval Battle: Najera: 63)
4) Maria Gonzalez de Henestrosa.
Natural offspring:
a. Fernando de Castilla, Señor de Niebla
5) Teresa de Ayala.
Niece of: Pero Lopez de Ayala
Natural offspring:
a. Maria de Castilla (d.1424), Nun
(Earenfight : 27)
"One of Sancha's own sisters, Teresa de Ayala, was (briefly, as a very young teenager) mistress of King Pedro I, to whom she bore a daughter, María de Ayala: both mother and daughter had long careers at the Dominican convent of Santo Domingo el Real in Toledo, where they lie buried in the convent’s chapel. True to their family tradition, but unusual for their sex, Teresa and María left a remarkable literary legacy of her own: a long series of correspondence with members of the royal Trastamara house—a remarkable relationship, considering their ties as former mistress and daughter of the Trastamaras' murdered ex-rival, King Pedro I." (The Literary Heritage of Sancha de Ayala)
" . . . In spite of any reservations the younger Ayala may have had about Pedro I, he was ordered by the king to act against some of Ayala's relatives living in Toledo and to 'accept' a casual relationship between his niece and the king. Teresa de Ayala, the woman in question, was the daughter of one of Ayala's sisters . . . Stitges . . . believes they met in the early 1360s . . . Comandante Garcia Rey . . . insists that Pedro took her by force and that this infamous act caused the alienation of the Ayala family from his cause" 'the blood of the Ayalas could not forgive this dishonor . . . which above other reasons explains their abandonment of his party and their ill feeling toward him. . . This assertion is completely unfounded. Teresa de Ayala and her daughter by Pedro went to reside at the convent of Santo Domingo el Real in Toledo, where the mother became prioress. In the last years of the century, she enjoyed close relations with Catalina of Lancaster, Pedro's granddaughter and wife of Enrique III of Castile." (Pedro the Cruel of Castile: 1350-1369: xvi)
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| Henry II of Castile @Wikipedia |
(1334-1379)
King of Castile
King of Leon
1369-1379
Son of: Alfonso XI de Castilla & Leonor de Guzman.
Husband of: Juana Manuel de Castilla, daughter of Juan Manuel de Castilla & Blanca Nuñez de Lara.
His lovers were:
1) Beatriz Fernández.
Natural offspring:
a. Fernando Enriquez de Castilla (1365-1438)
b. Maria de Castilla (1375-1393) mar Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, Admiral of Castille.
2) Beatriz Ponce de Leon y Jerica.
Natural offspring:
a. Fadrique de Castilla (1360-1394), Duque de Benavente, mar Leonor Sanchez de Castilla
b. Beatriz de Castilla (d.1409), Señora de Niebla, mar 1371 Juan Alonso de Guzmán 1342-1396), 4th Señor de Sanlúcar de Barrameda; Señor de Béjar, Lepe, Ayamonte, Redondela and Cunil; 1st Conde de Niebla 1369
[Ref]
3) Elvira Íñiguez de Vega (1355-1400)
Natural offspring:
a. Alfonso Enriquez de Castilla (1355-1398), Conde de Noreña & Giron
b. Juana de Castilla (1367-?)
4) Juana, Señora de Cifuentes (1340-?)
Natural offspring:
a. Juana de Castilla, Señora de Cifuentes (1360-?), mar Dinis de Portugal (1354-1397)
5) Juana de Carcamo.
Natural offspring:
a. Isabel Enriquez de Castilla (d.1419), mar Gonzalo Nuñez de Guzman, marriage dissolved later, Abbess of Santa Clara la Real de Toledo.
b. Ines Enriquez de Castilla (d.1443), Abbess, Santa Clara la Real de Toledo
6) Juana de Sousa.
daughter of Vasco Alfonso de Sousa, Mayor of Cordoba & Maria Gomez Garillo Duquesa de Medina Sidonia.
Natural offspring:
a. Enrique de Castilla (1378-1404)
7) Leonor Álvarez.
Natural offspring:
a. Leonor de Castilla.
8) Unnamed mistress.
Natural offspring:
a. Constanza Enriquez de Castilla, Señora de Alba de Tormes, mar Joao de Portugal Duque de Valencia de Campos.
9) Unnamed mistress.
Natural offspring:
a. Pedro Enriquez de Castilla (d.1366)
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| Enrique IV of Castile @Wikipedia |
(1425-1474)
King of Castile & Leon
1454-1474
Son of: Juan II de Castilla & Maria de Aragon.
Husband of:
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| Blanca II of Navarre @Wikipedia |
1. Blanca II de Navarra (1424-1464), mar 1440
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| Joana of Portugal @Wikipedia |
2. Joana de Portugal (1439-1475), mar 1455.
"Henry IV the Impotent, was a good-natured pleasure-loving prodigal, who had early wasted his strength by licentiousness. For a short time, his magnificent style of living, his open-handed liberality, his affable ways, his chivalrous proclamation of a crusade against the Moors, really won all hearts: but there was a great change of feeling, when the people were illegally burdened to pay for his extravagance, while the roads were infested by unruly nobles who could rob with impunity, and armies of thirty or forty thousand men were repeatedly led back from Granada, after plundering forays in which not a battle was risked, not a town was taken.
"The contempt to which the king exposed himself by his public conduct was still further heightened by his domestic. With even a greater indisposition to business than was manifested by his father, he possessed not of the cultivated tastes which were the redeeming qualities of the latter. Having been addicted from his earliest youth to debauchery, when he had lost the powers, he retained all the relish for the brutish pleasures of a voluptuary. He had repudiated his wife, Blanche of Aragon, after a union of twelve years, on grounds sufficiently ridiculous and humiliating. In 1455, he espoused Joanna, a Portuguese princess, sister of Alphonso V, the reigning monarch. This lady, then in the bloom of youth, was possessed of personal graces and a lively wit, which, say the historians, made her the delight of the court of Portugal. She was accompanied by a brilliant train of maidens, and her entrance into Castile was greeted by festivities and military pageants which belong to an age of chivalry. The light and lively manners of the young queen, however, which seemed to defy the formal etiquette of the Castilian court, gave occasion to the grossest suspicions. The tongue of scandal indicated Beltran de la Cueva, one of the handsomest cavaliers in the kingdom, and then newly risen in the royal graces, as the person to whom she most liberally dispensed her favours. This knight held a passage of arms, near Madrid, in presence of the court, in which he maintained the superior beauty of his mistress against all comers. The king was so much delighted with his prowess, that he commemorated the event by the erection of a monastery dedicated to St. Jerome: a whimsical origin for a religious institution. The queen's levity might have sought some justification in the unveiled licentiousness of her husband. One of the maids of honour, whom she brought in her train, acquired an ascendancy over Henry, which he did not attempt to disguise; and the palace, after the exhibition of the most disgraceful scenes, became divided by the factions of the hostile fair ones. The Archbishop of Seville did not blush to espouse the cause of the paramour, who maintained a magnificence of state which rivalled that of royalty itself. The public were still more scandalized by Henry's sacrilegious intrusion of another of his mistresses into the post of abbess of a convent in Toledo, after the expulsion of her predecessor, a lady of noble rank and irreproachable character." (History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella: 172)
His lovers were:
1) Catalina de Sandoval.
" . . . [H]e had also doña Catalina de Sandoval, whom for an infidelity, he afterwards shut up in the convent of San Pedro de las Duenas. Her accomplice lost his head,---an almost solitary instance of cruelty of this monarch." (The History of Spain and Portugal, Volume 2: 258)
"Henry took one of the maids of honour for his mistress, and kept her in such royal state, that her court rivalled that of the queen. Another mistress, Catherine Sandoval, who had been unfaithful, was provided for by placing her at the head of a convent at Toledo; the abbess, a lady of noble birth and spotless life, having been expelled on the pretence that the discipline of the house was lax." (A Short Course of History: 453)
" . . . Doña Catalina Sandoval was also for some time the object of his preference, but, endowed with neither constancy nor prudence, she was conflicted of bestowing her favors on another lover, and the enraged king was in this case guilt of the only act of cruelty ever perpetrated by his orders. . . ." (Annals of the Queens of Spain: 387)
2) Guiomar de Castro.
"Among the ladies who had accompanied Juana from Portugal was Doña Guiomar de Castro, whose rare beauty distinguished her amid the bevy of fair ones surrounding their lovely mistress, and to this lady the king, greatly to the surprise of all, paid attentions so unequivocal in their expression as finally to around the jealousy of the queen, who, quick-tempered and unaccustomed to self-control, took the earliest opportunity of manifesting her resentment in a manner little beseeming a lady and a sovereign, certainly, but to which she was provoked by the insolence of the favorite. . . ." (Annals of the Queens of Spain: 386)
" . . . In 1458 his subjects were not a little surprised to perceive a lady, Doña Guiomar de Castro, one of the queen's attendants, among the number. . . . " (The History of Spain and Portugal, Vo 2: 258)
"It is said that Guiomar de Castro (Atouguia) was the mistress of King Henry IV of Castile (known as 'the Impotent', whose nickname seems to be a contradiction of the rumour). This monarch married Princess Joana, sister of Prince Fernando, Duke of Beja, and aunt of Salvador Fernandes Zarco, in 1455. While he was still Prince of the Asturias, Henry rejected his first wife, Blanca of Navarra, in 1453, after thirteen years of marriage, on the grounds that she was sterile. But in the course of a scandalous court process, she accused him of sexual impotency, claiming that it was impossible for her to 'conceive without coitus', and the Bishop of Segovia annulled the marriage." (The Portuguese Columbus: Secret Agent of John II: 419)
Urraca de Castilla
(1079-1126)
Queen of Castile
Queen of Leon
Queen of Galicia, 1109-1126
Daughter of: Alfonso VI de Castilla & Constance de Bourgogne.
Wife of:
1. Raymond de Bourgogne (1070-1107), King of Galicia 1090
2. Alfonso I de Aragon.
"Unfortunately the Battler and Urraca could not keep peace together, nor could they produce a child. Alfonso, in stark contrast to many other Iberian kings, does not seem to have liked the company of women. Urraca abandoned her husband in 1110, in the midst of rebellions and warfare. She then alternately fought Alfonso and sought to negotiate some sort of settlement with him. . . ." (Royal Bastards: The Birth of Illegitimacy, 800-1230: 194)
Her lover was:
Pedro Gonzalez de Lara
Lover in 1112
Natural Offspring:
Elvira Perez de Lara (1117-1174) mar Beltran de Risenoral, Conde de Carnon.
"Count Pedro Gonzales had been the lover of Queen Urraca and she had borne the Castilian magnate two illegitimate children, Fernando and Elvira Perez. Nor, it is more than likely that Pedro Gonzalez nurtured high hopes that his son Fernando might one day succeed to the throne of Leon and Castile, so it is hardly surprising that he did not greet the accession of Alfonso VII in 1136 with unalloyed joy. . . ." (Barton: 113)
" . . . Beginning around 1112, Pedro Gonzalez de Lara inherited Urraca's favor and the dominance this brought. The report of the affair is echoed in the thirteenth-century chronicle De rebus Hispania. 'Count Pedro of Lara, while he displayed undue private familiarity with the Queen, which he hoped to see through marriage, was preeminent over all people, and began to exercise the office of king, and to rule everyone as lord.'" (Doubleday: 21)
Wife, not mistress: " . . . There were, moreover, if report did not wrong her, other and more secret reasons why Doña Urraca should have willingly embraced obscurity. That obscurity was illuminated, so it has always been maintained, by the romance of her third marriage, no less disastrous to her fame as woman and queen than the second had been. Its clandestine character has for many years brought down upon her memory that torrent of vilification and calumny which has only recently been cleared away from her history. The lawfulness of her union with the famous Count Pedro Gonzalez de Lara has been amply demonstrated. She was not the mistress, but the wife, of the first noble in her land, in whose veins ran the blood of kings no less than in hers. Their marriage preceded the abdication of the Queen. It would seem, indeed, as though the arrogant pretensions of the Count, which aroused against him the ill-will of his fellow grandees, and resulted in his being banished from Castile, was the chief cause of Doña Urraca's compliance with the suggestion of Gelmirez. The children of this shadowed marriage were Don Fernandez Perez de Lara, surnamed Hurtado, from the secrecy surrounding his birth, and Doña Elvira Perez de Lara, who married, first, Garcia Perez de Trava, and, secondly, Don Beltran de Risnel, Count of Carrion, a great adherent of the cause of Doña Urraca, and afterwards a faithful servant of her son's." (The Queens of Aragon, Their Lives and Times: 60)
References:
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