Scire Est Reminisci

Did Edward of Norwich enjoy precedence over Catherine of Lancaster in the succession to the Castilian throne?

There is evidence that Isabel of Castile, her husband Edmund of Langley, and their son Edward of Norwich, resented the fact that Isabel’s sister Constanza and Edmund’s brother John of Gaunt had supposedly set aside Isabel’s rights to her late father’s throne: sometime between August 1385 and December 1392, Edmund and Isabel issued a petition claiming that Gaunt had done so unjustly.

The York couple argued that King Pedro I of Castile had left his kingdom to his and María de Padilla’s eldest daughter Beatriz and her male heirs, then to Constanza and her male heirs, and finally to Isabel and her male heirs. As Constanza had no male heirs, her only son John of Lancaster having died soon after birth in 1375, Edmund and Isabel stated that Castile should fall to Isabel’s male heirs instead, and their son made the same argument many years later.

King Pedro’s will of November 1362, which set out his planned succession to his throne, is cited in full in Pero López de Ayala’s chronicle. Pedro I of Castile made a point of specifying that the sons, preferentially, or the daughters, failing the birth of sons, of his three daughters could inherit his kingdom.

The chronicler Jerónimo Zurita, in correspondence with the Dean of Toledo in 1570, acknowledged that he possessed an original document dated 1413 from Edward of Norwich. In this document, Edward asserted that, as a male descendant, he believed he held precedence over his cousin Catherine of Lancaster in the succession to the Castilian throne.

According to the document, this claim was based on a clause contained in a lead-sealed will of his grandfather, King Pedro I, which Edward himself possessed. Zurita remarked that, if this were true, it must have been a later will drawn up by the king in response to the succession dispute in question, since the will of 1362, as Zurita confirms, gave preference to the daughter of Constanza, Duchess of Lancaster, over the son of Isabel, Duchess of York.

Sources:

Kathryn Warner, The Granddaughters of Edward III

Were María Pita and Gráinne O'Malley women who challenged Elizabeth I of England?

Yes, both María Pita and Gráinne O'Malley challenged the power and policies of Elizabeth I, though in very different ways.

María Pita became famous during the English attack on A Coruña in 1589, part of the conflict between Spain and England after the defeat of the Spanish Armada. According to Spanish tradition, she rallied the city's defenders and helped repel the English forces sent under Francis Drake. In this sense, she resisted an expedition launched under Elizabeth I's authority.

Gráinne O'Malley (Grace O'Malley) was an Irish noblewoman and maritime leader who often opposed English expansion in Ireland during Elizabeth's reign. She fought English officials, defended her family's interests, and became one of the most notable Irish figures resisting Tudor control. However, in 1593 she famously met Elizabeth I in person, and the two women negotiated directly. Their relationship was therefore more complex than simple opposition.

Contemporary accounts and royal imagery strongly suggest that King Henry II of France often wore the colors and emblems associated with his longtime favorite, Diane de Poitiers, especially in tournaments and court festivities.

Diane's colors were primarily black and white, which she adopted after the death of her husband in 1531. Rather than withdrawing from court life, she transformed the colors of mourning into her personal livery. Henry II frequently incorporated these colors into his clothing, tournament trappings, horse caparisons, and heraldic decorations.

During jousts, Henry might display Diane's colors in several ways:

Black-and-white plumes attached to his helmet.

Black-and-white sashes or scarves worn over armor.

Horse trappings embroidered in black and white.

Interlaced monograms featuring the letters H and D, symbolizing Henry and Diane.

Tournament shields and banners decorated with Diane's emblematic colors.

This was a highly visible declaration of favor. Many observers at court noted that Henry appeared more eager to honor Diane publicly than his queen, Catherine de Medici. The king's devotion was so conspicuous that foreign ambassadors frequently commented on Diane's extraordinary influence.

Descriptions of María de Padilla

Positive

The chronicler Pedro López de Ayala, who knew María de Padilla—as he was both a contemporary and a servant of King Peter I of Castile—said of her in his Chronicle of King Don Pedro that she was “a woman of good lineage, and beautiful, and small of body, and of good understanding.”

In the Chronicle of Spain, begun by the Archbishop of Toledo, Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, continued by the Bishop of Burgos, Gonzalo de Hinojosa, and later by an anonymous author until 1454, María de Padilla’s beauty is praised, recognizing her as “the most graceful maiden to be found in the world at that time.”

Esteban de Garibay, in a historical compendium of 1571, emphasizes María’s determination to ensure that Peter I had the support of the great men of the realm. Likewise, recognizing her wise and discreet character, she helped to temper the king’s fury and bloodthirsty cruelty.

Much closer in time, Prosper Mérimée, in his Chronicle of Pedro I, King of Castile (1848), notes that María de Padilla “was small in stature, pretty, lively, and full of that voluptuous grace peculiar to the women of the South.”

Likewise, Juan Blas Sitges y Grifoll, in a rigorous study on the women of King Don Pedro, considers María de Padilla to have been little inclined to greed, nor does her conduct reveal a vengeful spirit: “Not a single instance is cited in which she appears vindictive, despite the hostility that many showed toward her, nor is there any evidence that she was eager to amass wealth on her own account.”

A “sweet and balanced Castilian” is how Casilda Ordóñez (1975) describes María de Padilla. The author writes, “Doña Maria appears before the eyes of history on a day in May 1352, to be, for nine years, the long-suffering companion of a cruel or justice-dealing king, a constant traveler; his balance and his support.”

Negative

María Jesús Fuente (2007) maintains that “above any other woman, the female figure most vilified by anti-Petrist propaganda was that of the king’s mistress, María de Padilla.”

Diego Ortiz de Zúñiga writes in 1677 that King Peter was bewitched by María de Padilla “through the force of her charms,” but not “by infamous arts, as is the common error,” fostered by the circulation of ballads. The attribution of magical and bewitching powers to María de Padilla thus soon appeared in the propagandistic narrative, both to captivate Peter I and later to turn him away from Blanche of Bourbon, with a belt that, given to the king by his newly wedded wife, becomes a frightful serpent; although, in that case, a Jewish sorcerer sought out by Doña María intervenes.

The ballads significantly influenced the transmission of what might be taken as the contemporary reality of events occurring at that time, although they were often distorted to serve propaganda and the interests of their promoters. María de Padilla appears in them as a mistress of dark arts and a maker of potions. Harsh wickedness is attributed to her. She is indeed portrayed as urging King Peter to have Blanche of Bourbon put to death.

María de Padilla was even, anachronistically, regarded as a queen of the gypsies, who did not arrive in Europe until a century later. Nevertheless, once her magical nature had been spread, she was, over time, adopted as a representative entity, invoked in a wide variety of spells by numerous sorceresses who were prosecuted by the Spanish Inquisition. Her portrayal as a diabolical entity spread not only throughout the Iberian Peninsula, but also reached Latin America, where it became associated with religions of African origin.

Source:

The Baths of Doña María de Padilla

In the underground Baths of Doña María, beneath what is now the Patio del Crucero in the Royal Alcázar of Seville, María de Padilla used to bathe frequently. Meanwhile, the king and the knights accompanying him would gather in conversation, depending on the occasion.

In a short work from 1868, The Alcázar of Seville, Fernán Caballero (the pseudonym of the writer Cecilia Böhl de Faber) recounts a likely embellished episode that praises the beautiful and captivating charm of María de Padilla. As part of the gallant customs of those medieval times—the relativity of taste being an unfinished book in every age and condition—it was customary for knights to drink from the water in which the ladies had bathed.

Thus it was expected to happen after María de Padilla’s bath, and King Pedro I was surprised to notice that one of the knights present did not do so. The king encouraged him to drink from that water, saying it was good and fresh. When the knight replied that he would not, Pedro I—who could be easily disturbed by even the slightest inconvenience—demanded an explanation. The knight, with both sincerity and courage, replied:

“To avoid, Sovereign Lord, that if I find the sauce pleasing, I might come to crave the partridge.”

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