CHAPTER 1

'É al infante don Manuel […] nascióle un fijo de la condesa de Saboya, su mujer, en Escalona […] é pusiéronle nombre Juan.'

In the summer of 1275 Alfonso X's eldest son, the Infante Fernando de la Cerda, fell ill and died whilst preparing the royal army to thwart a major invasion of Castile by the Banu Marin, Morocco's powerful new ruling dynasty. His sudden death sparked a succession crisis. It was customary in Castile for the right of primogeniture to pass to the sovereign's eldest surviving son upon the death of the heir; but the new code of law which Alfonso X was ready to introduce, the Siete Partidas, stated that if the first in line to the throne predeceased the king, then the first-born of the former should have the inheritance. Of the two possible candidates – Alfonso X’s second son the Infante Sancho, and the deceased Fernando de la Cerda's eldest son Alfonso – the first appeared more suitable: he was of age and had already demonstrated impressive leadership qualities. Yet the candidature of Alfonso de la Cerda, a mere five years of age, could not be ignored, for among his principal supporters were King Philippe III of France (his maternal uncle) and Juan Núñez, head of Castile’s powerful Lara family. At the Burgos cortes of 1276 Alfonso X, disinclined initially to prefer one candidate over the other, bowed to pressure from a consortium of leading aristocrats headed by Lope Díaz de Haro and named the Infante Sancho as the new heir to the throne of Castile. At a subsequent court gathering, the king of Castile underpinned Sancho’s position by conferring upon him certain governmental responsibilities.¹

But this was by no means the end of the matter. Around Christmas 1280, Alfonso, coveting French military assistance for a projected invasion of Morocco, sought to ingratiate himself with Philippe III of France. As part of this effort, he proposed granting Alfonso de la Cerda the kingdom of Jaén, to be held as a vassal state under Castile. Word of this enraged the Infante Sancho, who believed that, as the nominated heir to the throne, he was entitled to inherit his father’s dominions in their entirety. A few months later, at the cortes of Seville, Alfonso X further inflamed the situation with the revelation that he had reopened negotiations with France on the question of the succession. Alfonso and Sancho rowed bitterly about this and, in a fit of rage, the Castilian sovereign threatened to disinherit his son. The incident intensified an already widespread disenchantment among the aristocracy with Alfonso X's methods of government and, in April 1282, a cabal of lay and ecclesiastical magnates headed by the Infante Manuel, Alfonso's youngest brother and until recently his staunchest adherent,² met at Valladolid and determined to recognise the Infante Sancho as Castile’s new head of state.³

Whilst Manuel was plotting this coup d'état, his second wife, Beatrice,⁴ prepared to give birth to their first child at the family home in Escalona, a small Toledan town on the banks of the Alberche river, one of the many tributaries of the Tagus. And on Tuesday 5 May she did so, to a boy, whom they named Juan.⁵ The Infante Manuel must have been overjoyed that his wife had borne him a son rather than a daughter, as, a year shy of fifty,⁶ he had been without a male heir since the premature death of his first son, Alfonso, in 1275.⁷

Concerned that his new heir should inherit a worthy patrimony, the Infante Manuel laboured thenceforth to repopulate his landholdings, the bulk of which were situated in or adjacent to the kingdom of Murcia,⁸ and to acquire new properties. In February 1283 he persuaded his nephew the Infante Sancho – now the de facto ruler of Castile but unwilling to style himself 'King of Castile' while his father lived – to bestow the fueros and liberties enjoyed by the Murcian town of Lorca upon Villena, capital of the important Manueline seigniory of the same name.⁹ And a few weeks later he secured from Sancho the title deeds to the town, castle, and neighbourhood of Peñafiel,¹⁰ an estate which, the Crónica de Alfonso X records, Sancho had agreed to make over to him during the christening of Juan Manuel at Escalona a year earlier.¹¹ Narrative evidence indicates that the infante also received Chinchilla, Jorquera, Almansa, Aspe, and Ves around the date of his son’s birth,¹² although there are some grounds for doubting that he received every single one of these properties at this juncture.¹³

In concerning himself with the improvement of his landholdings so soon after the birth of his heir, Manuel had acted prudently, for his days were numbered: on Christmas Day 1283, stricken by illness, the infante breathed his last.¹⁴ The distribution of Manuel's possessions is known because his last will and testament, recorded on 20 December, is extant. Juan Manuel, as one would expect, received the lion's share of his father's holdings, the most significant of which seem to have been the above-mentioned properties, and also Elche, a vast estate comprising the town of the same name and the neighbouring villages of Aspe, Chinosa, Monóvar, Salinas and the port of Santa Pola.¹⁵ This inheritance, the will specified, was to be looked after during Juan’s minority jointly by his cousin the Infante Sancho, his mother Beatrice, Brother Rodrigo de Burgos (the custodian of Peñafiel), and six family retainers. The infant prince's half-sister Violante (the only surviving child from the Infante Manuel's first marriage) was allotted the Murcian properties of Elda and Novelda, although with restricted rights of ownership and jurisdiction. Manuel's widow Beatrice was endowed with the rents and derechos of Escalona, plus an allowance equal in value to the rents of Elda and Novelda (which had belonged to her but now corresponded to Violante). The infante's four natural children – Fernando, Enrique, Blanca, and Sancho (sired between his two marriages) – inherited no property. They were, however, left respectable amounts of money: Fernando and Enrique both received ten thousand maravedís, Blanca and Sancho five thousand.¹⁶

The Infante Manuel willed generous sums also to long-serving members of his household and, notably, to certain ecclesiastical institutions: to the Franciscans he left three thousand maravedís for the completion of a church; to the Dominicans two thousand maravedís plus whatever extra they might need for the completion of a house being built for them in Murcia; and to the military Order of Santiago fifty thousand maravedís, twenty thousand whereof were to be spent on the maintenance of the main chapel of the monastery of Uclés, where Alfonso Manuel and his mother Constança were buried, and where Manuel himself had requested that his corpse be laid to rest.¹⁷

It was, of course, far from uncommon in this era for members of the aristocracy to seek to smooth their path into the next life with pious acts of munificence. However, surviving evidence shows that the Infante Manuel favoured religious houses throughout his career and not just on his deathbed.¹⁸ And his heir Juan, concerned to preserve the reputation of the House of Manuel as sponsors of the Faith, would in his turn do much to help ecclesiastical associations, particularly the Dominicans, as we shall see in due course.¹⁹

As one might expect, contemporary documents and narrative accounts do not shed much light on Juan Manuel’s formative years. Fortunately, however, we are able to illuminate this period of his life with autobiographical information from his literary works. For instance, in Part I, Chapter 66 of his lengthiest creation, El Libro de los Estados, the Castilian Prince offers a detailed description of what he believes to be the ideal framework of instruction for the son of an emperor – a scheme, we learn, derived from recollections of the education he himself received.²⁰ Since the description is rather lengthy, only its most salient features are reproduced below:

Desque començare[n] [los fijos de los enperadores] a fablar et sopiere[n] andar, dévenles dar moços con que trebejen aquellos trebejos que les pertenesçe[n], segund su edat. Et desque fueren algún poco entendiendo, deven poner con ellos omnes buenos entendudos, de que oyan sienpre buenas razones et buenos consejos, et aprendan buenas maneras et buenas costunbres. Et deven guisar que sean acostunbrados en comer et en bever, ca esto en poder es de lo fazer de aquellos que los crían [...]. Et deque pasare[n] de çinco años adelante, deven començar poco a poco a les mostrar leer, pero con falago et sin premia. Et este leer deve seer tanto, a lo menos, fasta que sepan fablar et entender latín. Et después, deven fazer quanto pudieren por que tomen plazer en leer las corónicas de Ios grandes fechos et de las grandes conquistas, et de Ios fechos de armas et de cavallerías que acaesçieron [...]. [L]uego que Ios niños comiençan ândar, que deven a las vezes subirlos en las vestias. Otrosí, dévenle mostrar caçar et correr monte, et bofordar et armarse, et saber todos los juegos et las cosas que pertenesçen a la cavallería, porque estas cosas non enpesçen al leer, nin el leer a estas cosas. [Et] si fuere [el fijo del enperador] de hedat que pueda andar de cavallo et sofrir la fortaleza del tienpo, non deve dexar, por fuerte tienpo que faga, de ir a caça en cavallo, et vestir ganbax gordo et pesado, et mucha ropa; lo uno, por se guardar del frío, et lo ál, por acostunbrar el cuerpo a sofrir el peso de las armas, quando le acaesçiere. Et en quanto andudiere a caça, deve traer en la mano derecha lança o ascoña o otra vara; et en el isquierda deve traer un açor o un falcón. Et esto deve fazer por acostunbrar los braços: el derecho, para saber ferir con él, et el isquierdo, para usar el escudo con que se defienda. Et todavía deve traer el espada consigo.²¹

The purpose of the above-mentioned method of instruction, suffice it to say, was twofold. A fledgling nobleman required a formal education since, once of age, he would be obliged to attend to the administration of his patrimony (the adjudication of local disputes, confirmation of special privileges, etc.) and, on occasion, deliberate upon matters of state at the royal curia. And he required too a physical education, including schooling in the art of combat, since, once mentally and physically mature, he would be expected to fulfil the military obligations associated with his social caste (the medieval aristocrat was at once protector of the realm and defender of the Faith: he was bound, by virtue of his ties of vassalage, to render military assistance to his feudal superior the king, and obliged, by virtue of his creed, to defend Christian land from the expansionist ambitions of the infidel Saracen).²²

Juan Manuel may have received the finest of educations but he did not, it seems, enjoy the happiest of childhoods. Twice in Part I of El Libro de los Estados he hints at his early years being spoiled by the sycophancy of certain of his tutors and aides: in Chapter 85 he announces that 'los fijos de los infantes non son tan vien criados commo les cunpla, ca los que los crian, por les fazer plazer, trabajan en los falagar et consienten le[s] quanto quieren et loanles quanto fazen';²³ and in Chapter 95 he declares that:

los que crían los fijos de los señores, bien así commo pueden fazer mucho bien en criarlos et en castigarlos, por que sean buenos et bien acostunbrados, bien así pueden errar si en alguna cosa mengua[n] desto, falagando a sus criados por que estén mejor con ellos, o encubriéndoles o loándoles, quando en alguna cosa no fizieren lo que deven.²⁴

In the text of Juan Manuel's last testament we find confirmation that particular courtiers - seemingly those attached to his mother - were wont to praise and flatter him, chiefly for self-seeking reasons, and from that same source we learn that these individuals habitually threatened and insulted him too: 'se quan mal me falla de los con[segeros] [...] todos lisojandome et falagandome, et amenazandome et denostandome por que partiese mano de los consegeros que fueran de mi padre.'²⁵ Indeed, Juan has few positive things to say about his early years. His dissatisfaction with his upbringing is perhaps best reflected in his last book, El Libro Enfinido (dedicated to his heir Fernando), in which he dismisses the contribution of tutors and servants to the upbringing of a nobleman as of marginal value:

todo lo que pueden fazer a.los moços los que.los crian, es que sean bien costunbrados en comer et en beuer, et amostrarles buenas maneras et buenas costunbres. Mas quantos maestros et quantos ayos en.el mundo son non podrian fazer al moço de buen entendimiento, nin apuesto, nin cunplido de sus mienbros, nin ligero, nin valiente, nin esforçado, nin franco, nin de buena palabra, si Dios, por la su merçed, non lo faze.²⁶

We may speculate that Juan might have recollected his childhood with a greater measure of affection had he not lost his father at such an early age. The Infante Manuel had taken a keen interest in his first heir Alfonso, involving him in politics at a very early stage and taking him abroad, and there is no reason to think that he would have treated his new heir any different.

During his childhood Juan probably rarely left Escalona, let alone Castile. Boredom, the lack of a father figure, and the rigidity of his education are probably the primary factors contributing to the rather bitter recollections found in his literary works. Of these early years, 1289 and 1290 were possibly the most miserable: in the former year his ayo (foster-father) Martin Fernández de Pantoja passed away;²⁷ and in the latter he lost his mother Beatrice.²⁸ How the death of his mother affected him we do not know since no mention is made of the incident in his literature. Subsequent to that unhappy event, the Infante Manuel's nephew Sancho – now Sancho IV of Castile – took the newly-orphaned prince under his wing. This monarch, grateful for the support he had received from the House of Manuel in April 1282 and thereafter, had already shown favour to his young cousin Juan, bestowing upon him in 1284 the prestigious palatine office of adelantado mayor en el reino de Murcia,²⁹ and in 1291 he continued his promotion of the young prince, inviting him to Tarazona for an important interview with the new king of Aragon, Jaume II, whom, it was hoped, would prove friendlier than his brother and predecessor Alfons III.³⁰ The meeting went well: Sancho and Jaume formalised their friendship with a treaty of mutual aid and cemented it with an arrangement for the new king of Aragon to marry Sancho’s daughter, the eight-year-old Infanta Isabel.³¹ The festivities which ensued, described in Chapter 179 of Ramón Muntaner's Crónica, were suitably lavish: Juan Manuel and the other notables present were able to feast on the finest food and enjoy spectacles such as the spirited joust between the celebrated Aragonese admiral Roger de Lauria and Berenguer Amau d' Algera, a Murcian aristocrat renowned for his bravery. At this splendid celebration, the young lord of Villena would meet for the first time Jaume II and his half-brother Jaume Pérez, lord of Xérica, both of whom would later become important friends and allies.³²

In El Libro de las Armas, Juan Manuel comments that 'el Rey don Sancho en su Vida et yo siempre nuestras casas fueron unas et nuestros oficiales siempre fueron unas', a statement suggesting that he was something of a fixture at court subsequent to the death of his mother. In the same work Juan mentions that, in return for 'los vienes et la criança que el en mi fizo', he had served his sovereign 'lo mas leal mente que pude'.³³ The loyal service to which he alludes was doubtless that rendered during the summer of 1294, when the Banu Marin were menacing Castile's southern territories. Formally, Castile had been at peace with Morocco since November 1285 when, following a heavy reverse at the hands of an invading Muslim army, Sancho IV had concluded a treaty of peace and amity with the Marinid sultan Abu Yusef.³⁴ But the Castilian sovereign had broken that arrangement in 1292 when he collaborated with Aragon to wrest the strategically significant port of Tarifa from the Moroccans.³⁵ In 1294 a Marinid invading force, supported by the king of Granada and Sancho IV's disaffected brother the Infante Juan,³⁶ endeavoured to recover Tarifa but did not succeed. In the wake of this failure, the Moroccan army, disinclined to return to Africa without some notable military success to report, headed to the kingdom of Murcia.³⁷ It was incumbent upon Juan Manuel, as adelantado mayor of that region, to deal with the threat. His vassals' successful repulsion of the Muslim enemy is recorded in El Libro de las Armas:

Et entonce era yo con el reyno de Murçia, que me enviara el rey alla a tener frontera contra Ios moros, commo quiere que era muy moço, que non avia doze annos conplidos. Et esse verano, dia de çimquagesima [6 June], ovieron muy buena andança los mios basallos connel mio pendon, ca vençieron vn omne muy onrado que viniera por frontero a Vera, et abia nonbre lahçan Abenbucar Avençayen, que era del linage de los reys moros de allen mar, et traya consigo cerca de mill caualleros. Et a mi avien me dexado mios vasallos en Murçia, ca se non atreuieron a me meter en ningun peligro porque era tan moço. Et esto fue era de mill et CCC XXXII annos.³⁸

Although there is some doubt over the historicity of El Libro de las Armas,³⁹ we can accept the above account as authentic since the defeat of Abu Bucar is also documented in Muslim narrative sources.⁴⁰ Whilst Juan Manuel did not play an active part in the above-mentioned victory (arguably the most important defensive operation of Sancho IV's reign), it would be unfair to exclude it from the list of his military successes against Moroccan infidels who, as far as we know, never triumphed over any army flying the Manueline standard.

Concerned, perhaps, that the Banu Marin might undertake a fresh operation against Murcia, Juan Manuel and his men remained in that kingdom for the duration of the summer. Once the harvests of his lands had been gathered, the twelve-year-old prince departed with his retinue for Valladolid for a meeting with the King of Castile. According to the recollections of the lord of Villena, Sancho was keen to reward him for the recent success over the redoubtable Marinids:

Et Ilegue a el a Ualladolid, el dia que el rey y entro, et salli a el vna grand pieça ante que Ilegasse a la villa, et plogol mucho conmigo, et fizo me dese camino mucho bien et mucha onra et acreçentome grand partida de la tier[r]a que del tenia. Et çierta mente quien bien viesse las cosas que me el dezia et quantos bienes me fazia, bien podria entender que si tienpo et hedat oviese para ello, que non fincaria por el de me llegar a grand onra et a grand estado. Et dese camino tracto el mio casamiento et de la infanta donna Ysabel, fija del Rey de Mallorcas, que era su prima.⁴¹

The above-mentioned marriage, solemnized in 1299, had probably been negotiated during conversations in February 1294 between Sancho IV and a Mallorcan envoy by the name of Guillén.⁴² Of the properties Juan Manuel claims he received at this point we know nothing.

After this meeting, Juan Manuel headed for Peñafiel, his primary northern property. In late November Sancho IV, increasingly unwell, also left Valladolid, 'por quel consejaron los físicos que se fuese para el reino de Toledo, que non es tierra tan fría como Castiella'.⁴³ Before heading south the Castilian king visited Juan, playfully admonishing him for allowing the main castle of Peñafiel to fall into disrepair,⁴⁴ and not long after this the young prince received a visit from the queen of Castile María de Molina,⁴⁵ travelling a few days behind her husband's court.⁴⁶ In January or February of the new year (1295) Juan made his way from Peñafiel to nearby Fuentidueña to visit his only surviving uncle, the Infante Enrique, whom he had never met. This ageing magnate, a veteran of campaigns in Africa and Italy, had only recently been released from Italian captivity; doubtless he had many colourful stories to recount to his nephew.⁴⁷

Around mid-March Juan Manuel, still in Fuentidueña, received some upsetting news: Sancho IV had fallen gravely ill on his route to Toledo. The young prince left Fuentidueña immediately and headed for Madrid, where his cousin was being cared for.⁴⁸ Juan's final meeting with Sancho is recorded in El Libro de las Armas:

Envio [el Rey] por mi et quiso que estudiese en la fabla maestro Gonçalo, el abbad de Aruas et Alfonso Godinez et Pero Sanchez de la Camara, et don Habraham, su fisico, et Iohan Sanchis de Ayala, mio mayordomo, et Gomes Ferrandes, mio ayo, et Gonzalo Garcia, que me criaua et non se partia de mi, et don Çag, mio fisico [...]. Et desque fuemos todos estos con el Rey et la otra gente sallieron todos de la camara, estando el Rey muy maltrecho en su cama, tomome de los braços et asentome cerca si.⁴⁹

The moribund monarch, we are told, then delivered a lengthy, self-pitying soliloquy laden with allusions to his rebellion against his father Alfonso X in 1282. An abridged version is presented below:

Rogar vos que uos miembre[des] et vos dolades de.la mi alma; ca, malo mio pecado, en tal guisa passo la mi fazienda, que tengo que la mi alma esta en grand vergüença contra Dios. [...] Ca bien cred que esta muerte que yo muero no es muerte de dolençia, mas es muerte que me dan mios pecados et sennalada mente por la maldiçion que me dieron mio[s] padre[s] por muchos mereçimientos que.les yo mereçi. [...] quiero me espedir de uos et querer vos ya dar la mi bendiçion; mas, mal pecado, no la puedo dar a.vos nin a.ninguno ca ninguno non puede dar lo que non a; et lo vno por que a.vos non faze mengua por que se que la avedes; et lo al, por que.la non puedo dar por que.la non he; por ende non vos faze mengua la mi bendicion. Et por que.lo sepades mejor dezir vos dos cosas: la primera commo yo non he bendicion nin la puedo dar; la segunda, commo la avedes vos et non vos faze mengua la mia. Yo non vos puedo dar bendiçion [por] que la no he [de mios padres]; ante, por mios pecados et por mios malos mereçimientos que.les yo fiz, oue la su maldicion. Et dio me la su maldicion mio padre en su vida muchas vezes, seyendo biuo et sano, et dio me la quando se moria; otrosi, mi madre, que es biua, dio me la muchas vegadas et se que me la da agora, et bien creo por çierto que eso mismo fara a su muerte, et avn que me qui[si]eran dar su bendiçion, non pudieran, ca ninguno dellos non la heredo, nin la ovo de su padre nin de su madre. Ca el sancto rey don Fer[r]ando, mio abuelo, non dio su bendiçion al rey, mio padre, si non guardando el condiçiones çiertas que el dixo, et el non guardo ninguna dellas; et por esso non ovo la su bendiçion. Otrosi la reyna, mi madre, cuydo que non ovo la bendiçion de su padre, ca la desamaua mucho por la sospecha que ovo della de la muerte de la infanta donna Constança, su hermana. Et asi mio padre nin mi madre non avian bendicion de los suyos, nin la pueden dar a mi, et yo fiz tales fechos porque mereçi et oue la su maldicion, et por ende lo que yo no he, non lo puedo dar a uos nin a ninguno. Et so bien çierto que la avedes vos conplida mente de vuestro padre et de.la vuestra madre.⁵⁰

The authenticity of the foregoing, it must be said, seems rather dubious. First of all, it is hard to imagine a king on his deathbed delivering a monologue of this nature. As Alan Deyermond put it, 'apenas se puede creer que un hombre agonizante pronunciara un discurso tan largo y tan esmeradamente construido como el que se atribuye aquí a Sancho IV. Sería un esfuerzo no sólo heróico sino casi imposible.'⁵¹ Secondly, El Libro de las Armas was written over forty years after Juan Manuel's final audience with Sancho IV, making it highly unlikely that the words attributed in that work to the Fierce King closely resemble those which were actually uttered. Juan, in fact, is quite candid about the accuracy of the testimony, pointing out that:

todo esto no lo digo yo afirmando que en toda guisa fue todo asi, mas digo que me paresçe que lo oy en esta manera [...]; non vos do yo testimonio que bi todas estas cosas, mas oylas a personas que eran de crer. Et non lo oy todo a vna persona, mas oy vnas cosas a vna persona, et otras, a otras.⁵²

This candour could be a literary device to inveigle the reader into believing that the author (and, by extension, what he writes) is 'honest'. Whether Juan designedly fabricated aspects of the monologue, or even all of it, with the intention of presenting the Manueline line in a favourable light is something we will never know.