26 - How the King of Castile reached Elvas with the intention of capturing it but raised the siege and made his way to Ciudad Rodrigo

Summary

While the King of Castile was in Córdoba, as you have heard,1 he began his invasion of Portugal, filled with great rage and accompanied by a large army, for he was intent on bringing widespread slaughter to the Portuguese, in such a way that, through [punitive acts of] justice and any other means whereby he could avenge himself, he would not stop or leave the realm until he had taken it by force. He invaded via Badajoz and pitched his camp close to Elvas, which lies near the border, because he was given to understand that the town was short of provisions, to the point where the people were eating bread made from grape bagasse and other unpalatable ingredients. He was also told that, if he besieged the town for two weeks, he would starve it into submission. The king was very pleased at this, because Elvas is one of the nobler towns in the kingdom, and so he laid siege to it. In order to find out whether the hunger and thirst were as great as he had been informed, he besieged the town for a further ten days, thus twenty-five days all together. The people of the town kept the gates open and, whenever it suited them, fought skirmishes every day with those in the siege camp. One day the people of Elvas discovered that pack-mules belonging to the King of Castile were bound for the siege camp, bearing provisions and other materials, so they set up lookouts to keep watch for them. Then they emerged and seized the mules on the road from Badajoz to Elvas, bringing them into town, along with everything they were carrying.

Next morning Gil Fernandes [of Elvas] arranged a detachment of thirty squires to accompany him on a skirmish, leaving foot soldiers close to the town to defend it. In full view of the King of Castile, who was lodging very close by, they launched an attack against the enemy in a gallant and valiant skirmish, from which Gil Fernandes emerged with great honour, [fighting on] despite a lance thrust which wounded his horse in one of its forelegs. As for his men, one of them died from an arrow shot, whereas six Castilians met their deaths.