Peter of Castile, in Spanish Pedro de Castilla (1290 – 25 June 1319), was an ''
infante
Infante (, ; f. ''infanta''), also anglicised as "infant" or translated as "prince", is the title and rank given in the Iberian kingdoms of Spain (including the predecessor kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, Navarre, and León) and Portugal to the ...
'' of
Castile, a younger son of King
Sancho IV and his wife
María de Molina
María Alfonso Téllez de Meneses (c. 1265 – 1321), known as María de Molina, was queen consort of Kingdom of Castile, Castile and Kingdom of León, León from 1284 to 1295 by marriage to Sancho IV of Castile, and served as regent for her min ...
. He held the lordships (''señoríos'') of
Cameros,
Almazán,
Berlanga,
Monteagudo and
Cifuentes and was the ''
majordomo'' of his brother, King
Ferdinand IV of Castile
Ferdinand IV of Castile (6 December 1285 – 7 September 1312) called the Summoned (''el Emplazado''), was King of Castile and King of León, León from 1295 until his death.
Ferdinand's upbringing and personal custody was entered to his mother ...
. During the minority of his nephew
Alfonso XI, he shared the regency of Castile with his mother and uncle,
John ''el de Tarifa'', between 1313 and his death.
Peter married
María, a daughter of King
James II of Aragon. Their only child,
Blanche, was born after Peter's death. Although she was betrothed to King
Peter I of Portugal
Peter I (; 8 April 1320 – 18 January 1367), known as Peter the Just () or Peter the Cruel (), was King of Portugal from 1357 until his death in 1367. Early life
Born on 8 April 1320 in Coimbra, Peter was the fifth child of Afonso of Portuga ...
, the marriage never took place.
In 1313, reached at divided the regency of the young Alfonso XI between Peter, John and María, with the men being described as ''tutores''. This was confirmed by a ''
cortes'' at
Burgos
Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populous municipality of the province of Burgos.
Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of th ...
in 1315. Throughout the disputes over the regency in the years 1312–15 that often devolved into open conflict, Peter supported his mother and was often at odds with his uncle.
In 1316, Peter led a military expedition to the frontier of the
Kingdom of Granada. According to Christian sources, he won a great victory in the field, but unsuccessfully besieged two castles. Muslims sources mention no victory. In 1317, he again invaded Granada, relieving the
siege of Gibraltar and capturing the castle of
Bélmez de la Moraleda. In 1319, having received papal approval for a
crusade
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...
against Granada, Peter and John jointly led an expedition to besiege the fortress of
Tíscar. They separated their armies and were ambushed by a Muslim relief force. Both Peter and John were killed in the ensuing rout, known as the
Disaster of the Vega de Granada.
Notes
References
*
*{{cite book , title=María de Molina, Queen and Regent: Life and Rule in Castile-León, 1259–1321 , first=Paulette Lynn , last=Pepin , publisher=Lexington Books , year=2016
1319 deaths
Castilian infantes
Lords in Spain
1290 births
Castilian House of Burgundy
Sons of kings