118 - How Count Álvaro Pérez made a raid on Badajoz and what happened to him and the city defenders

Summary

We have not found anything worthy of recounting about what the Portuguese officers of the marches might have done while the masters [of Santiago and Alcántara] entered Portugal except perhaps that Count Álvaro Pérez de Castro, who was in Elvas as officer of the marches, ordered a raid to be made on Badajoz. He spoke to Gil Fernandes, who lived in Elvas and whom we mentioned in our account of the war against King Enrique, beseeching him to accompany him and not to leave him, and Gil Fernandes so promised him.

Then they made ready and rushed towards the town. The mounted raiders went ahead, and the count remained behind in ambush with Gil Fernandes and some of the armed men. The city was well supplied with defenders, many of whom charged out at the Portuguese and put them in great danger. When Gil Fernandes saw them advancing like that, he at once addressed the count, ‘My lord, we must not allow the harm that our horsemen are suffering. Let’s rush to help them instead, before more harm is done.’

Slowly the count began to go about it, but Gil Fernandes mounted immediately with twenty horsemen who wanted to follow him, and told a squire called Gil Vasques Barbudo, with whom he had had rash words in the presence of the count, ‘Come here, Gil Vasques, for I now want to see how men are different from women.’

When the count saw this, he said to Gil Fernandes, ‘It looks as if you do not quite remember what you promised me. You did say you would not leave me.’

‘My lord,’ he replied, ‘this is not the time to hold on to such a promise, for we can see that our men are having a rough time and we are just watching.’ Then he departed at all speed and reached the horsemen, urging them on as much as he could. They all fought in such a way that they made the Castilians turn back against their will, forcing them to ford the Guadiana. Quite a lot of them were wounded during the crossing; the Portuguese drove them back inside through the gates of the town and then returned to Elvas.