Fernán Sánchez de Castro

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fernán Sánchez de Castro ( Catalan Ferran Sanxis de Castre ; * before 1241; † 1275 with Pomar de Cinca ) was an Aragonese - Catalan nobleman and crusader in the 13th century. He was an illegitimate son of King James I of Aragón and the Blanca d'Antillon. From his father he had received the rule of Castro (today La Puebla de Castro ).

Life

Fernán Sánchez was in opposition to his father and between him and his half-brother, the future King Peter III. , there was a deep enmity, although in 1261 as envoy in Naples he had negotiated his marriage to Constance of Sicily . In 1265 he was one of the spokesmen for the Aragonese barons who spoke out against Jacob's campaign against Murcia , since he was solely serving the interests of the King of Castile.

On September 8, 1269, Fernán Sánchez and his half-brother Pere Fernandis d'Híxar went on an "armed pilgrimage" to the Holy Land at the side of his father . This enterprise was initiated as part of the Seventh Crusade . Just days after setting sail from Barcelona , the fleet was caught in a severe storm that drove most of the ships, including the King's, back to the coast. Fernán Sánchez and his brother reached the open sea with at least 11 ships and around 300 armed men and were able to continue the journey to Outremer , which they reached in Acre in October of the same year . There the brothers stood out for their impetuosity when they insisted on waging an open battle against the far superior Mameluke Sultan Baibars I , who was camped not far from the walls of Acre. However, they abandoned this plan when they witnessed from the walls the attack of a French knight regiment that was defeated by the Saracens . Ultimately, the Aragonese were not involved in any major fighting, but at least their presence kept the Saracens from a siege of Acon, who instead withdrew to Egypt . In the spring of 1270 Fernán Sánchez and the Aragóneses reached Barcelona again.

On the return journey Fernán Sánchez had spent the winter in Naples at the court of Charles of Anjou , who had ousted the Hohenstaufen in Sicily . Since then he has been suspected of conspiracy with the arch enemy by his brother Peter, as Peter himself claimed the Sicilian throne through his wife. In any case, Fernán Sánchez accused his half-brother of an assassination attempt on him in 1272. In return, Peter shortly thereafter denounced Fernán Sánchez to his father and accused him of an attempted murder and of organizing a riot. This led Fernán Sánchez into an actual revolt, in which he enjoyed the support of the Aragonese nobility. Among other things, he conquered the royal castles of Alquézar and Naval . With the suppression of the uprising, Prince Peter was charged, who received instructions from his father to proceed with all severity against the rebels. In the summer of 1275, Fernán Sánchez was besieged by his half-brother in the castle of Pomar . When he quickly realized his inferiority, he went on the run, which he could not continue on the river Cinca, however, since he could not swim through the river as a non-swimmer . Here he was caught by the men of Prince Peters, who immediately drowned him in the river.

Fernán Sánchez de Castro was married to a daughter of the Aragonese nobleman Jimeno de Urrea. His son was:

literature

  • Francesch Carreras y Candi: La creuada de Jaume I a terra santa 1269-1270 , in: Miscelanea històrica catalana , Vol. 11 (1905/06), pp. 273-305.
  • Francesch Carreras y Candi: La creuada a Terra Santa , in: I Congreso de Historia de la Corona de Aragón (1909), pp. 106-138.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon. A Translation of the medieval catalan Llibre dels Fets , ed. by Damian J. Smith and Helena Buffery (2010), §380-381, pp. 285-286.
  2. ↑ L'Estoire de Eracles empereur Liv. 34, §12, in: Recueil des historiens des croisades (1859), Historiens Occidentaux II, pp. 457–458
  3. ↑ The Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon. A Translation of the medieval catalan Llibre dels Fets , ed. by Damian J. Smith and Helena Buffery (2010), §484-489, pp. 338-342.
  4. ↑ The Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon. A Translation of the medieval catalan Llibre dels Fets , ed. by Damian J. Smith and Helena Buffery (2010), §508, p. 351.
  5. ↑ The Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon. A Translation of the medieval catalan Llibre dels Fets , ed. by Damian J. Smith and Helena Buffery (2010), §513-514, p. 353.
  6. ↑ The Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon. A Translation of the medieval catalan Llibre dels Fets , ed. by Damian J. Smith and Helena Buffery (2010), §549, p. 372.
  7. ↑ The Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon. A Translation of the medieval catalan Llibre dels Fets , ed. by Damian J. Smith and Helena Buffery (2010), §550, p. 372. Crònica de Bernat Desclot , ed. by Miquel Coll i Alentorn (1999), §70.
  8. ↑ The Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon. A Translation of the medieval catalan Llibre dels Fets , ed. by Damian J. Smith and Helena Buffery (2010), §513, p. 353.
personal data
SURNAME Fernán Sánchez de Castro
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ferran Sanxis de Castre
BRIEF DESCRIPTION natural son of King Jacob I of Aragon, lord of Castro
DATE OF BIRTH before 1241
DATE OF DEATH 1275
Place of death Pomar de Cinca