Ferdinandic Wars
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Event of the Ferdinandic Wars: Portuguese-English Army defeats French troops under Castilian command ( Ferdinand I on the horse on the right)
| date | 1369-1371 1372-1373 1381-1382 |
|---|---|
| place | Portugal, Castile |
| output | Castilian victory |
| consequences | Portuguese Revolution from 1383–1385 |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
Ferdinand I |
Heinrich II
|
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The Ferdinandine Wars were the wars between Ferdinand I of Portugal and the kings of the House of Trastámara for the throne of Castile after Peter I was murdered by his half-brother Henry II in the First Castilian War; what brought him to the throne.
In doing so, Portugal was supported by England because of the powerful fleet that the Portuguese owned. England wanted to neutralize the enemy fleet of Castile, allied with France , and weaken France in the Hundred Years War . France, on the other hand, supported Castile in order to prevent England's intentions. In this way, Ferdi Andean wars have also become a sideshow of the two parties to the conflict, which afterwards there went on .
First War (1369-1371)
The beginning of the reign of Ferdinand I was marked by this conflict. When King Peter I of Castile died in 1369 without leaving any male heirs , Ferdinand, great-grandson of Sancho IV on his mother's side, declared himself heir to the throne of Castile. His rivals were Peter IV of Aragon , Charles II of Navarre and John of Gaunt , 1st Duke of Lancaster, who justified his claim by being married to the eldest daughter of Peter I, Constanze , in 1370 . But it was Heinrich von Trastámara , the half-brother of Peter I, who ultimately ascended the throne after the death of Peter I and was also proclaimed the new King of Castile. Nevertheless, Ferdinand I's claim was justified, as Peter I was murdered by Heinrich von Trastamara in a civil war between the two after the decisive battle of Montiel .
The resulting confrontation led both opponents to wage two military campaigns with an uncertain outcome. After all, it was Pope Gregory XI. who, as a mediator, brought the parties to the conflict to reason.
Several Castilian nobles initially supported the claims of the Portuguese king. They were the sympathizers of Peter I. England also supported the king because they saw in him the better possibility of overthrowing Henry II. This war finally ended with the defeat of Ferdinand I, because England did not send troops as expected to continue the war. In addition, the last stronghold of the sympathizers of Peter I fell in Castile, which was in Galicia when they were defeated in the Battle of Porto dos Bois near Lugo in 1371 . This unfavorable situation for Portugal therefore led to the Alcoutim Treaty .
The Treaty of Alcoutim of 1371 , which restored the succession of Peter I, led to the recognition of Henry II on the Castilian throne and also to the marriage between Ferdinand I and Eleanor of Castile , the daughter of Henry II. The Portuguese king was supposed to be here of Castile also received border areas as part of the wedding in order to compensate for the loss of his ambitions for the Castilian throne. But before the wedding took place, Ferdinand fell passionately in love with Leonore Teles de Menezes , the wife of one of his people at court. He therefore annulled Eleanor's marriage and instead made her queen.
Even though there was riot everywhere because of this event, it still did not lead to war. After some time, Henry II decided to respect the decision of the Portuguese king on the condition that he should give up the territorial cession to Portugal that had been promised in the wedding. Ferdinand I agreed and the amendment to the contract was passed. Thereupon Heinrich II married his daughter with the king Karl III. of Navarre .
Second War (1372-1373)
The peace, however, was destroyed by John of Gaunt, who was able to convince Ferdinand I, also called the Beautiful or the Inconsistent , in a secret treaty to join forces with him to overthrow Henry II from the throne.
Castilian nobles and allies of Peter I, who fled to Portugal after the first war, then attacked Galicia with the intention of attacking the Castilian king from there. They succeeded, but Henry II's superiority was undisputed. He defeated her again. Thereupon Heinrich attacked Portugal with an army in December 1372 and surprisingly reached Lisbon . A short time later, the Castilian fleet also reached the capital of the empire and defeated the Portuguese fleet stationed there in the naval battle of Lisbon in early 1373 . Meanwhile it was impossible for England to send reinforcements because of the defeat of La Rochelle in the Hundred Years War last year. In these favorable circumstances, Henry II was able to force the Treaty of Santarem on the Portuguese king in the spring of 1373.
This treaty meant the end of the sympathizers of Peter I and the corresponding resistance to Henry II in Portugal. Henry II forced the King of Portugal to drive out the Peter's sympathizers and also a system of marriage alliances between the two at the expense of the Duke of Lancaster and England. To make sure that Ferdinand I would implement this, very important people in Portugal had to remain hostage with Henry II until then, including the Admiral Lanzarote Pessanha and Juan Alfonso Tello , the queen's brother. The same was true for several localities in Portugal. After the enforcement, the hostages and the towns were returned. This treaty also meant the end of the Peter sympathizers in Portugal and with it their hopes of overthrowing Henry II.
Another consequence of this war was the building of a new wall for Lisbon. It was later called the Ferdinandine Wall. It was built because the war made the Portuguese king aware that the protection of the city against the Castilians needed to be improved. Construction began in September 1373 and was then completed in 1375.
Third War (1381-1382)
When Henry II died in 1379 , the Duke of Lancaster again demanded his rights over the Castilian throne and in 1380, with the help of Juan Fernández de Andeiro , found an ally in Ferdinand I, who wanted to avenge his previous defeats in the previous wars and by the death of Henry II saw the opportunity to realize his plan. According to the treaty agreed upon, Portugal was to attack Castile, this time England being to directly support the Kingdom of Portugal with an army of 2,000 men, half of which were to consist of the dreaded English archers. This army would then be led by the Earl of Cambridge. Everyone was ready to fulfill this contract.
Encouraged by these perspectives, Ferdinand I made the preparations to attack Castile with the English and already undertook the first attacks on the country. However, the Duke and his troops later treated the Portuguese king as badly as his enemies when the army landed in Lisbon while the Portuguese fleet tried to fight the Castilian one. They pillaged and killed against their allies, and the Duke allowed it. In addition, the Portuguese fleet under the command of Alfonso Tello was crushed by the Castilian fleet under the command of Fernando Sánchez de Tovar off Saltés (1381). For the time being, this led to the irrevocable suzerainty of Castile at sea, which Tovar also used to besiege and attack Lisbon later by sea in the spring of 1382. Because of the unfavorable military situation for Portugal and because of the behavior of the Duke of Lancaster and his troops towards Ferdinand I and the Portuguese, on the one hand there was an uprising against the English troops, which were then decimated and driven out, and on the other hand 1382 to the later Treaty of Badajoz between Portugal and Castile, which was finally signed a year later.
The peace conditions in the treaty, which came about with the help of Juan Fernandez de Andeiro, stated that Beatrix , the heiress of Ferdinand I of Portugal, would settle with the son of Henry II and the current king, John I of Castile , his Woman who had recently died should marry in return for withdrawing from Portugal. The conditions of peace were willingly fulfilled by the dying Portuguese king and his wife due to the previous actions of the English. So the marriage finally took place on May 14, 1383. But this marriage also meant the de facto annexation of the Kingdom of Portugal by Castile, despite the fact that it also contained clauses that were supposed to prevent this. It was therefore not well received by the Portuguese nobility . This should ultimately lead to consequences after the death of Ferdinand I on October 22, 1383.
Consequences
After the death of Ferdinand I, the wars led to the Portuguese Revolution of 1383 , when the Portuguese nobility, with the support of England, was lucky enough to prevent the annexation of Portugal by Castile. This war, which was the last proxy war between England and France in Portugal, ended with John of Avis, an illegitimate son of Ferdinand, being proclaimed the new King of Portugal by the Portuguese, which led to the establishment of the Avis dynasty . England failed in the last attempt by John of Gaunt in this war to win the Castilian throne. This contributed to the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years War because the English could no longer turn their unfavorable situation in the war and had to give up most of their properties in France.
See also
literature
- Bailey Wally's Diffie: Prelude to Empire: Portugal Overseas Before Henry the Navigator . 1960 (English) .
- Francisco Javier Díaz González, José Manuel Calderón Ortega: Los almirantes del "Siglo de Oro" from the marina castellana medieval. En la España medieval (Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid) (24): 311-364. 2001. ISSN 0214-3038 (Spanish) .
- Edward McMurdo: The history of Portugal. Volume 2, 1888 (English) .
- César Olivera Serrano: Beatrice de Portugal. La pugna dinástica Avís-Trastámara. Santiago de Compostela: CSIC. 2005. ISBN 84-00-08343-1 (Spanish)
- Heinrich Schäfer: History of Portugal . Volume 1, 1836.