757 



PETER THE CRUEL. 



PETER THE HERMIT. 



768 



coldness to his bride, and soon confined her in the fortress of Arevalo. 

 He next conceived a passion for Donna Juana de Castro, a young lady 

 of a noble family, and in order to marry her, he pretended that his 

 marriage with Blanche was null, and he found some prelates, the 

 bishops of Salamanca and Avila, who took his part. In 1354, he 

 publicly married Juana at Salamanca, but he soon abandoned her also, 

 on the ground that he had deceived her as well as the prelates. Not 

 long after Juana was brought to bed of a son. Her brother Fernando 

 Perez de Castro, a powerful lord of Galicia, incensed at his sister's 

 treatment, raised the standard of revolt, and joined the king's brothers 

 and other discontented nobles. Queen Blanche being rescued from 

 her guards, the citizens of Toledo declared themselves her champions 

 and defenders. The league thus formed became too powerful for 

 Pedro, and on the interference of the pope's legate, the king promised 

 to discard Maria de Padilla and to live with Blanche. On this con- 

 dition the papal legate abstained from excommunicating him, but 

 Pedro shortly after, having obtained supplies from the Cortes at 

 Burgos, resumed the war, confined Blanche to the fortress of Siguenza, 

 surprised the towns of Toledo acd Toro, and put to death many of 

 th leaders of the league; the rest escaped into Aragon. In 1358 

 Pedro having got into his possession his natural brother Fadrique, 

 grand-master of the order of St. lago, ordered him to be put to death 

 by his guards in his own presence. Fadrique's brothers Enrique and 

 Tello kept up a desultory warfare against Pedro on the borders of 

 Aragon and Castile. 



Pedro now entered into an agreement with his cousin and name- 

 Bake, King Pedro of Portugal, for the mutual surrender of their 

 respective subjects. Pedro of Portugal was nearly as cruel, though 

 cot quite ?o unprincipled as his cousin of Castile, and he was then 

 bu.-y in discovering and putting to death all those who had been in 

 any way concerned in the murder of his mistress Inez de Castro. 

 [ALONSO IV. OF POBTUOAL.] In 1360 the exchange of blood was 

 made. The Castilian gave up the Portuguese emigrants, who were 

 put to death, and he obtained the persons of several of his revolted 

 subjects who had fled to Portugal, and whom he speedily despatched, 

 except the archbishop of Toledo, the protector of Blanche, who was 

 only banished. In 1361 that unhappy lady was put to death, it is 

 (aid by poison, at Xeree, by order of her husband. Soon after, Maria 

 de Padilla died a natural death, and Pedro, having assembled the 

 Cortes at Seville, declared that she had been his lawful wife, and pro- 

 duced witnesses who swore to the nuptials as having taken place before 

 his marriage with Blanche. The Cortes acknowledged the issue of 

 Maria de Padilla to be legitimate. 



It was about this time, 13C2, that Pedro committed another 

 atrocious murder, on the person of Abu Said, the Moorish king of 

 Granada, who bad come to him at Seville with a safe conduct, for 

 the purpose of doing homage for bis kingdom as a fief of Castile. The 

 Moor came with numerous attendants and servants in splendid attire, 

 and brought much valuable property with him. He was invited by 

 Pedro to an entertainment, in the midst of which a number of armed 

 men entered the hall, seized the Moors, rifled their persons, and 

 dragged them to prison. The following day Abu Said, mounted on 

 an ass, and thirty-seven of his companions, were paraded through the 

 streets of Seville, preceded by a herald, who cried that they were 

 condemned to death by King Don I'edro for dethroning their lawful 

 sovereign Mohammed Ben Yusef. Being conducted to a field bebind 

 the Alcazar, Abu Said was stabbed to the heart by Pedro himself, 

 whilst his companions were despatched by the Castilian guards. 



The king of Aragon, joined by the king of Navarre, as well as by 

 Bertrand Duguesclin and other French leaders and soldiers who 

 resented the cruel treatment of Blanche, invaded Castile in 1366, 

 entered Calahorra, and proclaimed Enrique, Pedro's natural brother, 

 as king. Pedro, who was at Burgos, fled to Seville without fighting. 

 Enrique was acknowledged throughout all Castile, and the people of 

 Seville, soon after revolted against Pedro, who fled into Portugal. 

 From Portugal he went into Galicia, where he had some partisans, 

 who urged him to try the fortune of arms ; but Pedro, having already 

 in 1383, formed an alliance with Edward III. of England, depended 

 chiefly upon the assistance of the Black Prince, who was then in Gascony, 

 While passing through St. lago he committed another deed of atrocity, 

 the motive of which is not clearly ascertained. The archbishop of St. 

 lago, called Don Suero, was lord of several towns and fortresses, and he 

 was one of those who had urged Pedro to make a stand against his 

 enemies. All at once Pedro sent for him, and on the archbishop reach 

 ing the gate of his own cathedral where the king flood as if to receive 

 biin, he and the dean were suddenly pierced by the spears of the 

 guards, and the church was plundered. The strongholds of the arch- 

 bishop were then occupied by the king's troops, after which Pedro 

 embarked at Coruiia, and sailed for Bayonne, in 1366. 



Edward the Black Prince engaged to restore Pedro to his throne. 

 Pedro on his part promised him the lordship of Biscay, with a supply of 

 money for himself and bis army. Besides the alliance existing between 

 his father and Pedro, the French king, Cbarli s V., being the ally of 

 Enrique, the English prince found it his interest to put his weight on 

 the other side of the scale. In the spring of 1367 the Black Prince, 

 together with Pedro, put themselves in motion with an army of English, 

 Normans, and Gascons, and passing through the defile of lioncesvalles, 

 they crossed Navarre, with the consent of that king, and entered Caatile. 



The Black Prince, was joined on his march by Sir Hugh de Calverley 

 and Sir Robert K nowlea, at the head of several thousand men, who had 

 served as volunteers in the army of Enrique, but would not bear 

 arms against their own countrymen. The army thus reinforced 

 amounted to about 30,000 men. The army of Enrique was much 

 superior in numbers, but the men wero not all true to his cause. The 

 two armies met at Najera, a few miles from the right bank of the 

 Ebro, on the 3rd of April. The battle began with the war cry of 

 ' Guienne and St. George ' on one side, aud ' Castile and St. lago ' on the 

 other. Enrique fought bravely, but his brother Don Tello fled from the 

 field at the head of the cavalry, and the Castilian infantry, being charged 

 by the Black Prince in person, gave way. Enrique escaped with very 

 few followers, and retired into Aragon. Pedro, whose ferocity had 

 not been tamed by adversity, wished to kill the prisoners, but was 

 prevented by the Black Prince as long as he remained in Castile. 

 Pedro proceeded to Burgos, and all Castile acknowledged him again. 

 But he behaved faithlessly to his ally ; he only paid part of the money 

 which he had promised for the troops, and as for the lordship of 

 Biscay, Pedro excused himself by saying that he could not give it 

 without the consent of the states of that province. The Black Prince, 

 disgusted, and out of health, with his troops half starved, returned to 

 Guienne, where he arrived in July. After his departure Pedro gave 

 vent to his cruelty, and put to death many persons at Toledo, Cor- 

 dova, and Seville. This gave rise to a second insurrection, and 

 Enrique having again made his appearance, many of the towns of 

 Castile declared for him. Some towns however, and Toledo among 

 the rest, held out for Don Pedro, and a desultory but destructive 

 warfare, as all Spanish wars have been, was carried on for two years. 

 The circumstance of Pedro having still a strong party in many towns, 

 notwithstanding all his cruelty, gives weight to the supposition that 

 while Pedro ruled the nobles with an iron sceptre, he was not so 

 obnoxious to the mass of the people, who were out of the reach of his 

 capricious ferocity. 



In March 1369, Enrique, being joined by Duguescliu with 600 

 lances from France, laid siege to the town of Montiel, where his 

 brother then was. Pedro, through one of his knights, made great 

 offers to Duguesclin if he would assist him to escape. Duguesclin 

 informed Enrique of these offers, and it was agreed, with a cold- 

 blooded treachery, equal to that of Pedro himself, that he should 

 entice Pedro to his tent. On the evening of the 23rd of March, Pedro 

 came to Duguesclin's tent, when Enrique, who lay in wait, fell upon 

 him with his dagger. They grappled together and fell to the ground, 

 but Enrique with the aid of bis attendants soon despatched his brother. 

 Enrique II. was then proclaimed throughout Castile. 



PETER THE HERMIT was born about the middle of the llth 

 century in the diocese of Amiens in France, of a gentleman's family 

 according to Gibbon. He received a careful education, at first in 

 Paris, and afterwards in Italy. He then embraced the profession of 

 arms, and served under the Count de Boulogne in the wars against 

 Flanders in 1071. Being of small stature he did not distinguish him- 

 self as a soldier, so he retired, married, and had several children. His 

 wife dying, he retired first to a convent, then became a hermit. 

 Here, says Gibbon, " his body was emaciated ; his fancy was inflamed; 

 whatever he wished he believed ; whatever he believed he saw in 

 visions and revelations." He undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, 

 was oppressed with sorrow at the miseries to which he saw the 

 pilgrims were subjected, and was encouraged by Simon, the patriarch 

 of Jerusalem, to make their state known in Europe. He returned on 

 this mission to Rome, and was favourably received by Pope Urban II., 

 who commissioned him to preach the deliverance of the holy city. 

 He traversed Italy, France, and other parts of Europe, mounted on 

 an ass, with his feet bare, his head uncovered, clothed in a coarse 

 vestment bound with a cord, and bearing a crucifix in his hand. He 

 possessed fluency of speech, an earnestness that impressed with an 

 opinion of his sincerity, and an intelligent and expressive countenance. 

 He conjured the faithful to take up arms, and to hasten to deliver the 

 city of God from the captivity in which it was held by infidels, and 

 his success was enormous. While he was thus agitating the com- 

 munity, Pope Urban summoned a council, which was held at first at 

 Placentia, and then at Clermont in Auvergne, at which he detailed the 

 sufferings of the believers. A crusade for the recovery of Jerusalem 

 was proclaimed, and Peter proceeded again on his mission to assemble 

 forces. In 1083 an immense crowd undertook to follow him, and still 

 mounted on his ass, but clothed in a woollen mantle, with sandals on 

 his feet, he undertook to lead the mighty host, which was estimated to 

 amount to 100,000 men. It was divided into two parts, of which one 

 was commanded by Peter, the other by Walter the Pennyless, who 

 was by far the best fitted to be a leader. Peter had no qualities to 

 enable him to govern the undisciplined mob who followed him. He 

 involved himself in hostilities against the Hungarians, who had been 

 provoked by the misconduct of his troops, and his army was beaten and 

 dispersed at Semlin. With difficulty he conducted the remnant of his 

 host to Constantinople, where the Emperor Alexis had been long 

 wishing for the assistance of Europeans against the growing power of 

 the Turks, but the predatory and barbarous habits of his new allies 

 soon made them unbearable. He furnished them with provisions, and 

 gladly accelerated their passage into Atia, where, refusing to wait th e 

 junction of other Christian forces, they engaged in battle with the 



