Constance of Castile: Of Dowries & Doubts

What had happened to the marriage of Pedro of Castile and Blanche of Bourbon, indeed?

The siren of Maria de Padilla may be one factor and Pedro's dissatisfaction with his mother’s guidance may well be another.  Then there is the matter of Blanche’s dowry:  obtaining it proved difficult given Pedro’s treatment of Blanche as well as the Pedro's contention that Blanche’s family never intended to pay Blanche's considerable dowry.   The idea of a political alliance between Castile and Leon, on the one hand, and the House of Bourbon, on the other, may also have been attractive to Pedro, who would spend the rest of his life battling unsuccessfully for his crown at the hands of his illegitimate half-brother and his own disaffected nobility: Pedro was perennially short of funds and Blanche’s dowry, along with the cemented political alliance with Bourbon, must have looked like an easy ticket out.  It also played into the various wars of Northern Europe at the time, with Pedro playing France and its traditional ally, Scotland, against the English, to whom he would turn next.

Iberian Lands & Languages of the 14th C.

Above we see a map of the Iberian lands and language groups of the 14th Century (not my graphic).    France is of course towards the upper-right, with Castile sandwiched between Portugal and Aragon, and itself made up of two previous smaller countries, Leon and Castile.  The New Castile was thus an amalgam of competing noblemen and language barriers that made it vulnerable not only to infighting, but to outside invasion as well.

The three day speed with which Pedro abandoned Blanche, first cousin to the King of France, however, was shocking even in its day; it also seems inconsistent with later explanations that Pedro left Blanche because he was unhappy with her French relatives dragging their feet on paying her dowry.  The time for such negotiations should have occurred prior to the marriage and not after, and most assuredly not after abandoning Blanche after a mere three days time.  

While Blanche's family did little to rescue the pathetic princess (Pedro's letters to the Pope complained that the French had seemingly no intention to honor the payment of Blanche's sizable dowry of 300,000 gold florins, for which they had, tellingly, insisted on installment payments), Pedro's nobles reportedly began muttering about on history repeating itself vis-a-vis Pedro's infidelity and the possibly of a second recent set of Castilian royal bastards being favored and advanced in society.  

Maria of Portugal's brief ascendancy saw her rival 'convicted' and executed; Eleanor de Guzman left behind unhappy progeny, eager to avenge their mother and assert their right to the crown.  This is the world Pedro's daughters would inherit, always looking over their shoulders for the Trastamere treachery.  Pedro needed a good ally after losing France to stabilize his country and that of the region.

Pedro needed Blanche's dowry ironically because his infidelity threatened the Castilian social order.  His illegitimate half-brother would pursue this path relentlessly until Pedro had walked himself into a corner and lost his crown and then his life.  It proved to be his undoing.  

After about a year of 'wedlock' with Blanche of Bourbon, Pedro was successful in 'convincing' a few of his country's bishops to nullify his marriage to Blanche... only to 'marry' him to Juana de Castro, another noblewoman... while Blanche was still alive.  She, too, was abandoned, after bearing Pedro a son, when the Pope belatedly commanded Pedro to return to Blanche.  Thus, by the mid-1350s/early 1360s, Pedro had not one, not two, but three living wives by his own reckoning.

Froissart says of Pedro, We must add likewise that this Don Pedro, king of Castile, who at present is driven out of his realm, is a man of great pride, very cruel, and full of bad dispositions.  The kingdom of Castile has suffered many grievances at his hands: many valiant men have been beheaded and murdered, without justice or reason, so that these wicked actions, which he ordered or consented to, he owes the loss of his kingdom.  

Tomb of "Queen" Juana de Castro (d. 1374)

By 1361/2, Blanche died of either poison or neglect and Maria de Padilla, too, died, possibly of the Plague.  Juana de Castro is said to have been deserted by Pedro after their brief 'marriage,' bearing him a son; she would herself die in 1374, and her son would live until 1405.  Thus at Pedro's death he left four documented children:  one by Juana de Castro (abandoned with the strange story of it being because the Pope excommunicated Pedro for abandoning Blanche):  Juana's son Juan (d. 1405) and the three surviving children of Maria de Padilla: Constance, Isabell and Beatrice (nun).

Next up:  the childhood and early adulthood of the children of Pedro and Maria de Padilla. 

History for Ready Reference from the Best Historians, Volume 4
Pedro the Cruel of Castile (Clara Estow)
Kathryn Warner's Edward II Blog
Anna Belfrage's Blog