Pedro I

Pedro I of Castile was a fascinating historical figure. The only Castilian king of that name, his singularity spans a good part of the years of his convulsive life and is the reason for an extensive Petrist historiography, in addition to texts and literary works. His childhood was marked by the neglect he received from his father, King Alfonso XI, who practically abandoned Queen Maria of Portugal to join his concubine Leonor de Guzmán, with whom he had a progeny of bastards. Among them, Enrique de Trastámara, who took the life of Pedro I, in the fratricide with which the Castilian civil war ended. An outstanding courtier, who knew and participated in the events, Pedro López de Ayala, wrote, in addition to the Rhymed Book of the Palace, the chronicle of King Don Pedro, with a relevant bill, both literary and historical, and the main source for knowledge of the reign. The pages of this book deal with the attractive life of Pedro I, with a first approach explained by the revelations of the studies of his mortal remains and the last wishes of his testament, made in 1352. To the chronicle of López de Ayala, and special attention is paid to the chronicler himself, who was chancellor of Castile, preparing an attractive analysis of the time and reign of Pedro I, in Castile in the mid-fourteenth century with the successive and failed marriages of the king, in addition to his cohort of friends, as well as their offspring, made legitimate in some cases and bastardized in many others. The bloody deaths, attributed to the king's cruelty, explain the realization of a detailed memorial of them. And the regicide, justified as tyrannicide, which would lead to a change of dynasty and, a few years later, to the institution of the Principality of Asturias.