BATALLA DE ALJUBARROTA

Battle of Aljubarrota (1385)

Aljubarrota is, probably, the most important battle in Portuguese History: at least, it is considered by them as the one who assured their independence, and it is usually called "The Battle" in Portuguese Chronicles.

Antecedents

The Portugal of the 1370's was governed by a weak and sick king, D. Fernando, and by his intrigant wife, Leonor, who was the real governor of the country, and was hated by Portuguese people. They had only a small daughter, Beatriz, and there was no precedents in Portugal of a woman reigning. Finding too close her husband's death, and wanting to assure the throne to Beatriz (and the regency for herself), Leonor looked for a pact with his neighbour, the king of Castile John I, offering him the marriage with Beatriz (we should add that the two competitors of Beatriz, princes John & Henry, were refugeed in Castile, so they could be easily neutralized by the Castilian king).

John accepted, against the advice of his counselors (they thought Castile had not too much to win in this task, but much to loose): he probably wanted to break the agreement with Leonor, and become himself the regent, but anyway, the opposition against Leonor became opposition against John, too. In any case, the union between Castile & Portugal was impossible, because John had already two male sons (the future Henry III of Castile & Ferdinand I of Aragón) without rights to the Portugal Crown, but the attitude of John after Ferdinand's death, claiming the title of king of Portugal, designing a coath of arms, mixturing Portuguese & Castilian arms, and emprisoning Portuguese princes, made Portuguese fear for their independence. A true revolution started rigth after the death of king Fernando, leaded by prince Joao, Master of Avis and bastard relative of the Royal Family, and who took the title of "Defender of the Kingdom".

Year 1384 is marked by the siege to the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, by Castilians and Portuguese supporters of Beatriz. At the beginning, the fall of Lisbon looked like easy: it was blockaded by land & sea. But, in 18th July, a Portuguese fleet managed to break the blockade (all the war ships of the fleet were sunk by Castilians, but, in the meanwhile, transports had already entered the city), giving Portuguese time to resist. A plague in the besieging army made John order the retreat in September, after loosing half of his army, and some of his best officers. Still, Beatriz side looked more powerful than Joao's one, but Joao started to receive English help, and the moral victory (reinforced with some minor victories like Atoleiros or Trancoso) made Joao win new supporters. He claimed the title of King of Portugal (John I), and the war, which had been mainly a civil war between Portugueses, became more and more a war between Portugal & Castile.

The battle

In 1385, a new Castilian offensive (once more, against the advice of Castilian counselors) would front the Portuguese in a battle who would probe to be deccisive. On August 13th, both armies formed between two rivulets south of Calvaria, who formed a kind of trapeze, with Castilians in the base, and Portuguese in the smaller "roof". The Portuguese had dismounted and formed a deffensive line. The avangard was commanded by the comstable Nun Alvares Pereira, already the hero of the war, reinforced by Portuguese knights (the "enamorados") at his right, and 400 English bowmen at his left. Behind him, there was another line, and, later, a reservation of infantry.

Castilian avangard was commanded by Pedro de Aragón, son of the marquis of Villena. Portugueses loyal to Beatriz were included there. The Master of Alcántara, reinforced with 800 French mercenaries should front the English, while Pedro Alvares Pereira (brother of the Portuguese comstable), should front Portuguese "enamorados", with the cavalry of the order of Calatrava. Heavy cavalry formed behind them, under the command of the own Castilian king.

Being too late in the day, Castilian king decided to stand by and wait. Portuguese only would have two possibilities: to attack and be defeated, or to stand by, and, without provisions, and having the Castilians numerical superiority, suffer the probable desertions at night. Anyway, the youngest Castilian knights, thinking it was a coward tactics, started the fight, before receiving this order. All the Castilian line joined an uncoordined assault, who was completely crushed by English arrows and Portuguese infantry. An action of the cavalry of Alcántara (commanded by Gonzalo Núñez de Guzmán) allowed a posterior Castilian retreat, preventing Portuguese counterattack, but the Portuguese victory was complete.

Actually, the number of casualties was not too big (54 death in Portuguese field, and probably some hundreds in Castilian side), but the moral effect was crushing: many of the Castilian noblemen were among the casualties, and almost all the Portuguese towns and castles who still supported Beatriz's changed their side.

Consequences

After the battle, they were the Portuguese the ones who took the offensive role, but with even less success than Castilians previously. The main effect is that there was no Peace Treaty: Portugal & Castile remained theoretically in war during the next decades. If there was an idea of a "Spanish Monarchy" including all the Peninsular states, with all kind of links among them, Portugal will break them enough time to form a feeling of belonging to a different nationality. We could affirm this caused the division of the Iberian Peninsula in two different countries: Spain & Portugal.

Bibliography:

"Juan I de Castilla y León"

Luis Suárez Fernández.

Serie Reyes de Castilla y León. Ed. La Olmeda.

See also:

The battle by the Castilian point of view ("Crónicas de los reyes de Castilla", by Pero López de Ayala, a witness of the battle, in Old Castilian).

The Portuguese point of view at: Battle of Aljubarrota .

Return to: Battles of Castile & Leon. .