Peter of Castile - Early Life

Early Life

Peter was born in the defensive tower of the Monasterio de Santa Maria la Real de Las Huelgas in Burgos, Spain.

According to chancellor and chronicler Pero López de Ayala, he had a pale complexion, blue eyes and very light blond hair; he was tall (1'83 m.) and muscular. He was accustomed to long, strenuous hours of work. He was well read and a patron of the arts, though in his formative years he enjoyed entertainment, music and poetry.

Peter began his reign when but sixteen years old and subjected to the control of his mother and her favourites. He was to be married to Joan, daughter of Edward III of England; on her way to Castile, however, she travelled through cities infested with the Black Death, ignoring townspeople who had warned her not to enter their settlements. Joan soon contracted the disease and died.

Though at first controlled by his mother, Peter emancipated himself with the encouragement of the minister Albuquerque. Becoming attached to María de Padilla, he married her in secret in 1353. María turned him against Albuquerque.

In the summer of 1353, the young king was practically coerced by his mother and the nobles into marrying Blanche of Bourbon; he deserted her at once. This marriage necessitated Peter's denying that he had married María, but his relationship with her continued and she bore him four children. He also apparently went through the form of marriage with a lady of the family of Castro (who bore him a son who died young, after Peter's death), then deserted her. A period of turmoil followed in which the king was for a time overpowered and in effect imprisoned. The dissension within the party striving to coerce him enabled him to escape from Toro, where he was under observation, to Segovia.

In 1361, Queen Blanche died at Medina Sidonia. Legend claims that Peter murdered her: one version of the story says she was poisoned, another that she was shot with a crossbow.