John of Gaunt Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==King of Castile== {{Moresources|section|date=December 2022}} Upon his marriage to [[Constance of Castile, Duchess of Lancaster|Constance of Castile]] in 1371, John assumed (officially from 29 January 1372) the title of King of Castile and León [[Jure uxoris|in right of his wife]], and insisted his fellow English nobles henceforth address him as "my lord of Spain".<ref>Plea Rolls of the Court of Common Pleas; National Archives; CP 40/541; year 1396. [http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT6/R2/CP40no541a/aCP40no541afronts/IMG_0140.htm Several entries, as Duke of Aquitaine & Lancaster; and as King of Castile and Duke of Lancaster]</ref> He [[Impalement (heraldry)|impaled]] his arms with those of the Spanish kingdom. From 1372, John gathered around himself a small court of refugee Castilian knights and ladies and set up a Castilian [[chancery (medieval office)|chancery]] that prepared documents in his name according to the style of [[Peter of Castile]], dated by the Castilian era and signed by himself with the Spanish formula "Yo El Rey" ("I, the King").{{sfn|Sumption|2009|pp=122–123}} He hatched several schemes to make good his claim with an army, but for many years these were still-born owing to lack of finance or the conflicting claims of war in France or with Scotland. It was only in 1386, after Portugal under its new King [[John I of Portugal|John I]] had entered into a full alliance with England, that he was actually able to land with an army in Spain and mount a campaign for the throne of Castile (that ultimately failed). John sailed from England on 9 July 1386 with a huge Anglo-Portuguese fleet carrying an army of about 5,000 men plus an extensive "royal" household and his wife and daughters. Pausing on the journey to use his army to drive off the French forces who were then besieging [[Brest, France|Brest]], he landed at [[A Coruña|Corunna]] in northern Spain on 29 July. [[File:John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster dining with the King of Portugal - Chronique d' Angleterre (Volume III) (late 15th C), f.244v - BL Royal MS 14 E IV.png|thumb|right|upright=1.35|John of Gaunt dines with [[John I of Portugal]], to discuss a joint Anglo-Portuguese invasion of Castile (from [[Jean de Wavrin]]'s ''Chronique d'Angleterre'')]] The Castilian king, [[John I of Castile|John of Trastámara]], had expected John would land in Portugal and had concentrated his forces on the Portuguese border. He was wrong-footed by John's decision to invade [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]], the most distant and disaffected of Castile's kingdoms. From August to October, John of Gaunt set up a rudimentary court and chancery at [[Ourense]] and received the submission of the Galician nobility and most of the towns of Galicia, though they made their homage to him conditional on his being recognised as king by the rest of Castile. While John of Gaunt had gambled on an early decisive battle, the Castilians were in no hurry to join battle, and he began to experience difficulties keeping his army together and paying it. In November, he met King John I of Portugal at Ponte do Mouro on the south side of the [[Minho (river)|Minho river]] and concluded an agreement with him to make a joint Anglo-Portuguese invasion of central Castile early in 1387. The treaty was sealed by the marriage of John's eldest daughter [[Philippa of Lancaster|Philippa]] to the Portuguese king. A large part of John's army had succumbed to sickness, however, and when the invasion was mounted, they were far outnumbered by their Portuguese allies. The campaign of April–June 1387 was an ignominious failure. The Castilians refused to offer battle and the Galician-Anglo-Portuguese troops, apart from time-wasting sieges of fortified towns, were reduced to foraging for food in the arid Spanish landscape. They were harried mainly by French mercenaries of the Castilian king. Many hundreds of English, including close friends and retainers of John of Gaunt, died of disease or exhaustion. Many deserted or abandoned the army to ride north under French safe conducts. Shortly after the army returned to Portugal, John of Gaunt concluded a secret treaty with John of Trastámara under which he and his wife renounced all claim to the Castilian throne in return for a large annual payment and the marriage of their daughter Catherine to John of Trastámara's son, Henry. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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