94 - How King Enrique sent to ask the King of Aragon for his daughter, and how she married his son Prince Juan

Summary

As we said in the last chapter, there was discord between King Enrique and the King of Aragon in such a way that, although King Enrique sometimes sent to ask him to be his friend, those he sent could never get a good answer from him. Instead, the King of Aragon took the town of Molina and besieged the castle of Requena. Despite all this, King Enrique sent a message to tell him that the King of Aragon knew well that, while he was in Aragon, when Sir Bertrand and the other knights came to help him return to Castile, there were certain treaties signed between them. Amongst these was an agreement that his son Prince Juan would marry the King of Aragon's daughter Princess Leonor, who had come to live in his house for a period of time.

After the battle of Nájera had been lost, the King of Aragon had taken his daughter back, declaring that it was not his wish that the marriage should take place. Afterwards, although King Enrique had sent several times to request it, the King of Aragon refused to consent. Now King Enrique was again asking him to deign to do so. The King of Aragon answered this with several reasons why he should not do it, and there were many debates and arguments about the matter between the two kings. Eventually, the King of Aragon agreed to give King Enrique his daughter despite his wife the queen, the daughter of the King of Sicily, being displeased at his doing this and despite her attempts to hinder matters as much as she could.

Then one day the King of Aragon sent his ambassadors to Almazán where Prince Juan was, and they agreed with him the conditions of his marriage to the princess. They arranged that the King of Aragon would leave the castles of Molina and Requena and accept all the other things that King Enrique demanded, and that King Enrique would pay the expenses incurred in sending his daughter to Castile as well as for some repair work that he had done on the aforementioned castles, 80,000 gold francs in all. In this way, the kings became good friends and were at peace and in agreement. Once the ambassadors had returned, the King of Aragon prepared to send the princess to her wedding, as he had arranged.