Henry of Castile the Senator

Henry ( Enrique ), Infante of Castile, called El Senador, (* March 1230; † August 1304 ) was a younger son of Ferdinand III, the Saint, King of Castile and his first wife Elizabeth ( Beatrix) of Swabia. . The company has become a hero name made ​​in 1248 in the conquest of Seville, when he successfully defended the convoy of the army with a few men against a strong Moorish supremacy. Since his father Ferdinand gave him as thanks large estates in Andalusia.

After his father's death in 1252, his brother Fadrique annoyed and he took away under the reign of the eldest brother Alfonso X them their possessions. He made ​​plans with his stepmother, Jeanne de Dammartin, Countess of Ponthieu, who was rumored to be his mistress. Heinrich launched an uprising in the south west in October 1255th Despite an initial victory over the royal troops, he was defeated near Morón and had to leave the country. Henry sought refuge with his stepmother in Ponthieu. You should have told him to his half-sister Eleanor of Castile, who with Edward I (son of Henry III. ) Was married to attend.

Henry came in August 1256 at the English court. He lived there for three years, while diplomatic relations with Castile were getting worse. Henry III. asked him to leave the English court. Therefore Heinrich broke in 1259 initially to Valencia, where he campaigned for the hand of Princess Constance of Aragon. In order to become worthy of her, he conquered the Moorish kingdom of Niebla in the Algarve. His brother Alfonso X sent his army against him. Henry, however, defeated the leader, Nuno Gonzalez de Lara in chivalrous Zweikanpf, and then had to sail towards Africa, and became a mercenary when Emir al - Mustansir in Tunis, where he was fighting with his brother Fadrique. Later, he went to Italy, where he in 1266 his cousin Charles I of Anjou helped, after the battle of Benevento against Manfred von Hohenstaufen, to ascend the throne of Sicily. He borrowed his cousin large sums of money. The main man of the people ( Capitano del Poppolo ) Angelo Capocci, leader of the People's Party, Henry of Castile appointed a senator of Rome, from which his nickname " El Senador " explains itself. Since the borrowed sums of money could not repay Charles I of Anjou, he had Henry must give the title of King of Sardinia. He broke his word of honor, however. Therefore, when Henry Cousin Conradin of Hohenstaufen invaded in 1268 as the rightful heir of Sicily in Italy, the senator of Rome received him with all honor and joined himself with him, along with an army of supporters ghibelinischen from many cities of Italy. Henry was one of the bravest generals in the battle of Tagliacozzo. After the defeat, he fled to the convent of San Salvatore, where he was taken prisoner by the Angevinen. He spent the next 23 years in captivity in Naples ( Canosa di Puglia and Castel del Monte). In 1272 made ​​his half-sister Eleanor of Castile and her husband King Edward I., who returned from the crusade in Tunis, stop in Sicily. Eleanor of Castile tried to free her half-brother, but she was not successful. But she remained until her death in touch with him.

Eleanor of Castile and Charles I of Anjou died before Henry's release in 1291st He then went to Tunis to King Abou Hafs, with whom he had previously conquered Miliana in Algeria. He returned in 1294 as an ambassador back from Tunis to Aragon, and later to Castile, where he was appointed in place of his great-nephew, King Ferdinand IV, as Regent. He fought in the battle against the Moors of Granada for the last time in the year 1295th He married a lady of the Lara family, but probably had no children with her. He died in 1304. From a love affair in his youth, with a woman of the nobility name Mayor Rodriguez Pecha, he has offspring. His grandson was Enrique Henríquez de Sevilla, high officials under King Alfonso XI of Castile. The life story of Henry of Castile, his skills as a poet, his war experiences in England and the Mediterranean, and temporal similarities have given this opportunity to define him as the creator and author of the famous knights tale Amadis de Gaula, which appeared around 1300, . This theory is represented in Liceus El Portal de las Humanidades of Santiago Seville in a series of writings.