John I (Spanish: Juan I; 24 August 1358 – 9 October 1390) was King of Castile and León from 1379 until 1390. He was the son of Henry II and Juana Manuel of Castile. John ascended to the throne in 1379, and in 1383, he married Beatrice, the daughter of King Ferdinand I of Portugal. When Ferdinand died that same year, John, aiming to enforce his claim on the Portuguese crown through his wife, brought the country into the 1383–1385 Crisis. His forces faced resistance from Portuguese factions supporting John of Aviz. The conflict culminated in the Battle of Aljubarrota in 1385, where John suffered a defeat, ensuring Portugal's independence.
To secure Castile, he married his son Henry to the daughter of John of Gaunt, linking the Trastámara and Plantagenet dynasties. He died in 1390 when he fell from his horse during a fantasia performance. His death led to minority rule under his son, Henry III.
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Biography
In 1379, John I formed the short-lived military order of the Order of the Pigeon, known for its large feasts which included eating the organization's namesake, the pigeon. Unlike his father, John I seems to have been more tolerant towards Jews, even making legal exemptions for some, such as Abraham David Taroç.
In the summer of 1380, a combined Spanish-French fleet of 20 galleys under the command of Fernando Sánchez de Tovar departed from Seville to launch a raid on Gravesend. The town was sacked and burned down and some surrounding towns suffered the same.
He ransomed Leo V of the House of Lusignan, the last Latin king of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, from the Mamluks and out of pity granted him the lifetime lordship of Madrid, Villa Real and Andújar in 1383.
He engaged in hostilities with Portugal; his first quarrel with the Portuguese was settled in 1382, and later, on 14 May 1383, he married Beatrice of Portugal, daughter of King Ferdinand I of Portugal. On the death of his father-in-law (22 October 1383), John endeavoured to enforce the claims of his wife, Ferdinand's only child, to the crown of Portugal. The 1383–1385 Crisis, a period of civil unrest and anarchy in Portugal, followed. He was resisted by supporters of his rival for the throne, John I of Portugal, and was utterly defeated at the battle of Aljubarrota, on 14 August 1385.
He also had to contend with the hostility of John of Gaunt, who claimed the crown of Castile by right of his wife Constance, the eldest daughter of Peter of Castile. In response, the king of Castile sent the ambassador and lawyer Don Diego Lopez de Medrano in 1386 with his reply to Prince John of Gaunt. The king of Castile finally bought off the claim of his English competitor by arranging a marriage in 1388 between his son Henry and Catherine, daughter of Constance and John of Gaunt, as part of the treaty ratified at Bayonne.
At the beginning of 1383, the political situation in Portugal was volatile. Beatrice was the only child of King Ferdinand I of Portugal, and heir to the throne, after her younger brothers' deaths in 1380 and 1382. Her marriage was the political issue of the day, and inside the palace, factions lobbied constantly. Ferdinand arranged and cancelled his daughter's wedding several times before settling for his wife's first choice, King John I of Castile. John had lost his wife, Infanta Eleanor of Aragon the year before, and was happy to wed the Portuguese heiress. The wedding took place on 17 May at the Cathedral of Badajoz. Beatrice was only ten years old.
King Ferdinand died soon thereafter, on 22 October 1383. According to the treaty between Castile and Portugal, the Queen Mother, Leonor Telles de Menezes, declared herself Regent in the name of her daughter and son-in-law. The assumption of the regency by the queen was badly received in many Portuguese cities; Leonor was considered a treasonous interloper who intended to usurp the Portuguese crown for Castile and end Portugal's independence. At the request of John I of Castile, when he had knowledge of his father-in-law's decease, Leonor ordered the acclaim of Beatrice, although John I of Castile hadn't expressly recognized her as the Regent. This was ordered first in Lisbon, Santarém and other important places, and some days after the assassination of Count Andeiro, in all the country. The national rebellion led by the Master of the Order of Aviz, the future John I, began immediately, leading to the 1383–1385 Crisis.
Crisis of 1383–1385
King John of Castile invaded Portugal at the end of December 1383, to enforce his claim to be king by right of his wife. The consequent war was effectively ended in 1385, with the defeat of Castile in the Battle of Aljubarrota on 14 August. In the aftermath of this battle, John of Aviz became the uncontested King of Portugal. John of Castile and Beatrice no longer had a tenable claim to the throne of Portugal, but during the lifetime of John I of Castile, they continued to call themselves king and queen of Portugal.
To secure the succession of the throne of Portugal, the Portuguese Cortes on 2 April 1383 in Salvaterra de Magos covenanted marriage between Beatrice and John I of Castile, with the stipulation that upon the death of Ferdinand I, with no issue of sons, the crown would pass to Beatrice, and her husband become titular king of Portugal. Although John I of Castile could call himself king of Portugal, the Spanish and Portuguese parties agreed not to unite the kingdoms of Castile and Portugal, and therefore, Leonor, widow of King Ferdinand, would remain regent of the government of Portugal until Beatrice had a son who upon reaching fourteen years of age would assume the title and office of King of Portugal, and his parents' claim cease. If Beatrice died childless, the crown would pass to other hypothetical younger sisters, and if not, the crown would pass to John I of Castile, and through him to his son Henry, thus disinheriting the line of Inês de Castro. Pedro de Luna, a Papal legate to the realms of Castile, Aragon, Portugal and Navarre, pronounced the betrothal in Elvas on 14 May, and the wedding ceremony took place on 17 May at the Cathedral of Badajoz. To ensure compliance with the treaty, on 22 May a group of Castilian knights and prelates of the kingdom swore an oath to depose their king if the Castilian king dishonoured the commitments agreed in the treaty, and a corresponding group of Portuguese knights and prelates vowed to do the same if the king of Portugal broke the treaty with Castile, among them the Master of Aviz.
King Ferdinand I of Portugal died on 22 October 1383. His widow, Leonor Telles de Menezes, under the Treaty of Salvaterra de Magos and by the previous testament of the deceased king, declared herself Regent in the name of her daughter and son-in-law. From then onwards, Leonor ruled with her lover, João Fernandes Andeiro, second Count of Ourém, also called "Conde Andeiro", a Galician who had been Fernando's chancellor, which angered the nobility and the lower classes. The news of the death of Ferdinand came to John I and Beatrice in Torrijos, with the closing of the court in Segovia. The Master of Aviz wrote John, urging him to seize the Portuguese crown by right of his wife, and the Master himself would assume the regency. To avoid problems with John the Infante of Portugal, the dynastic eldest son of Inês de Castro, John I had him and his brother Dinís imprisoned in the Alcazar of Toledo. King John I then met the Council in Montalbán and sent Alfonso Lopez de Tejada with instructions for the regent, now Queen Mother, to proclaim Beatrice and himself the rulers of Portugal. The proclamation was announced, first in Lisbon, Santarém and other important places, and then, some days after the assassination of Count Andeiro, in all the country. Yet in Lisbon and elsewhere, as in Elvas and Santarém, popular sentiment favoured John the Infante.
Death and burial
King John died in Alcalá on 9 October 1390, when he fell from his horse while riding in a fantasia, a traditional display of horsemanship with light horsemen known as farfanes mounted and equipped in the Arab style. His death was kept secret for days by Archbishop Pedro Tenorio who claimed he was only wounded. Since his son Henry III was still a minor at the time, a regency was set up to rule in his place. After his death, the body of John I was transferred to the city of Toledo for burial. His tomb is in the Chapel of the New Monarchs (La Capilla de los Reyes Nuevos) of the Cathedral of Toledo in Spain.
Family
His first marriage, to Eleanor of Aragon on 18 June 1375, produced his only known issue :
Henry (4 October 1379 – 25 December 1406), succeeded his father as King of Castile.
Ferdinand (27 November 1380 – 2 April 1416), became King of Aragon in 1412.
Eleanor (b. 13 August 1382), died young.