Battle of Aljubarrota
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Aljubarrota (aɫʒuβɐˈʁotɐ) was a battle fought between the Kingdom of Portugal
and the Crown of Castile
on 14 August 1385. Forces commanded by King John I of Portugal
and his general Nuno Álvares Pereira
, with the support of English allies, opposed the army of King John I of Castile
with its Aragonese, Italian and French allies at São Jorge place, between the towns of Leiria
and Alcobaça, in central Portugal. The result was a decisive victory for the Portuguese, ruling out Castilian ambitions to the Portuguese throne, ending the 1383-1385 Crisis and assuring John as King of Portugal.
Portuguese independence was confirmed and a new dynasty, the House of Aviz
, was established. Scattered border confrontations with Castilian troops would persist until the death of John I of Castile in 1390, but these posed no real threat to the new dynasty. To celebrate his victory and acknowledge divine help, John I of Portugal ordered the construction of the monastery of Santa Maria da Vitória na Batalha and the founding of the town of Batalha
(Portuguese
for "battle", bɐˈtaʎɐ). The king, his wife Philippa of Lancaster
, and several of his sons are buried in this monastery, today a UNESCO
World Heritage Site
.
devastating France, the Black Death
decimating the continent, and famine afflicting the poor. Portugal was no exception. In 1383, on October, King Ferdinand I of Portugal
died with no son to inherit the crown. The only child of his marriage with Leonor Telles de Menezes
was a girl, Princess Beatrice of Portugal
.
In April of that same year the King signed the Treaty of Salvaterra de Magos
with King Juan I of Castile. The treaty determined that Princess Beatrice was to marry Juan I, king of Castile, and the Crown of Portugal would belong to the descendants of this union. This situation left the majority of the Portuguese discontent, and the Portuguese nobility was unwilling to support the claim of the princess because that could mean the incorporation of Portugal to Castile; also the powerful merchants of the capital, Lisbon
, were enraged from being excluded from the negotiations. Without an undisputed option, Portugal remained without king between 1383 and 1385, in an interregnum
known as the 1383–1385 Crisis
.
The first clear act of hostility was taken in December 1383 by the faction of John (João), the Grand Master of the Aviz Order (and a natural son of Peter I of Portugal
), with the murder of Count Andeiro. This prompted the Lisbon merchants to name him "rector and defender of the realm". However, the Castilian king would not relinquish his and his wife claims to the throne. In an effort to normalize the situation and secure the crown on his head or in the head of Beatrice, he forced Leonor to abdicate from the regency. In April 1384, in Alentejo, a punitive expedition was promptly defeated by Nuno Álvares Pereira, leading a much smaller Portuguese army at the Battle of Atoleiros
. This marked the first use of English defensive tactics on the Iberian peninsula, reportedly without any casualties to the Portuguese.
A larger second expedition led by the Castilian king himself reached and besieged Lisbon for four months before being forced to retreat by a shortage of food supplies due to harassment from Nuno Álvares Pereira, and the bubonic plague
.
In order to secure his claim, John of Aviz engaged in politics and intense diplomatic negotiations with both the Holy See
and England. On 6 April 1385, (the anniversary of the "miraculous" battle of Atoleiros, a fortuitous date), the council of the kingdom (cortes in Portuguese) assembled in Coimbra
and declared him King John I of Portugal. After his accession to the throne, John I of Portugal proceeded to gain the cities where the military commanders have supported Princess Beatrice and her husband's claims, namely Caminha
, Braga
and Guimarães
among others.
Enraged by this "rebellion", Juan I ordered a 31 000-strong two-pronged invasion in May. The smaller Northern force sacked and burnt populations along the border, including the open city of Viseu
, before being defeated by local Portuguese nobles in the battle of Trancoso
, on the first week of June.
On the news of the invasion by the Castilians, John I of Portugal's army met with Nuno Álvares Pereira
, the Constable of Portugal
, in the town of Tomar
. There, they decided to face the enemy in battle, before they could get close to Lisbon and besiege it again.
Along with its English
allies who arrived on the 1385 passover, consisting of a company of about 100 English longbowmen, veterans from the Hundred Years War, sent to honor the 1373 alliance
(presently the oldest active treaty in the world). The Portuguese set out to intercept the invading army near the town of Leiria
. Nuno Álvares Pereira took the task of choosing the ground for the battle. The chosen location was São Jorge near Aljubarrota, in a small flattened hill surrounded by creeks, with the very small settlement of Chão da Feira (Fair's Ground) at its widest point, still present today.
, for example, or Poitiers
), the dispositions were the following: dismounted cavalry and infantry in the centre with archers
occupying the flanks. Notably, on the vanguard's left wing (later covering the left flank), a company composed by some two hundred unmarried young nobles is remembered to history as the "Ala dos Namorados" (Sweethearts' Flank); the right wing, also two hundred strong, known as "Ala de Madressilva" or Honeysuckle Flank, didn't achieve the same heroic fame. On either side, the army was protected by natural obstacles (in this case, creeks and steep slopes). In the rear, reinforcements were at hand, commanded by John of Portugal himself. In this topographically
high position, the Portuguese could observe the enemy's arrival and were protected by a steep slope in their front. The rear of the Portuguese position, which was in fact its front in the final battle, was at the top of a narrow slope, which came up to a small village, and was further constricted by a complex series of interlocking trenches and caltrops designed to surprise and trap the enemy cavalry. This trenching tactic was developed around this time and used extensively by both the English in France and the Portuguese in the rare set-piece battles of the Crisis of the Succession.
The Castilian vanguard arrived at lunch time from the north. Seeing the strongly defensive position occupied by the Portuguese, John of Castile made the wise decision to avoid combat on John of Portugal's terms. Slowly, due to the numbers of his army (about 31,000 men), the Castilian army started to contour the hill where the Portuguese were located. John of Castile's scouts had noticed that the South side of the hill had a gentler slope and it was there that the Castilian king wanted to attack.
In response of this movement, the Portuguese army inverted its dispositions and headed to the South slope of the hill. Since they were fewer than the enemy and had less ground to cover, they attained their final position very early in the afternoon. To calm the soldiers' nervousness and to improve his army's defensive position, general Nuno Álvares Pereira ordered the construction of a system of ditches, pitches and caltrop
s. This application of typical English tactical procedures had also been used by the Portuguese on the previous battle of Atoleiros and was especially effective against cavalry (the speciality of both the Castilian and the French armies).
Around six o'clock in the afternoon the Castilian army was ready for battle. According to John of Castile's own words, in his report of the battle, his soldiers were by then very tired from the march that started early in the morning under a blazing August sun. There was no time to halt now, and the battle would soon begin.
The initiative of starting the battle was on the Castilian side. The French allied heavy cavalry charged, as they were accustomed to do: in full strength, in order to disrupt order in enemy lines. Even before they could get in contact with the Portuguese infantry, however, they were already disorganized. Just like at Crécy
, the defending archers and crossbowmen, along with the ditches and pits, did most of the work. The losses on the cavalry were heavy and the effect of its attack completely null. Support from the Castilian rear was late to come and the knights that did not perish in the combat were made prisoners and sent to the Portuguese rear.
At this point the main Castilian force entered the battle. Their line was enormous, due to the great number of soldiers. In order to get to the Portuguese line, the Castilians had to disorganize themselves, to squeeze in the space between the two creeks that protected the flanks. It was not an auspicious start. At this time, the Portuguese reorganized. The vanguard of Nuno Álvares Pereira divided into two sectors. Since the worst was still to come, John of Portugal ordered the retreat of the archers and crossbowmen, and the advance of his rear troops, through the space opened between the vanguards. With all troops needed at the front, there were no men available to guard the knight prisoners. John of Portugal ordered them to be killed on the spot and proceeded to deal with the approaching Castilians.
Advancing uphill with the sun on their backs, squashed between the funnelling Portuguese defensive works and their own advancing rear, and under a heavy rain of English longbowmen's arrows fired from behind the Portuguese line and crossbow quarrels from behind both the Sweethearts' and the Honeysuckle wings on their flanks, the Castilians did their best to win the day. The Castilian knights on the main body were forced to dismount and break in half their unwieldy four metres-long lances in order to join the constricted melèe alongside their infantry.
At this stage of the battle, both sides sustained heavy losses, especially on the "Ala dos Namorados" where the Portuguese students became renowned for holding off the heavily armoured knights of the Castilian wings who, still on horseback, attempted to flank the Portuguese lines. A similar attack was more successful on the right "Honeysucle" flank, though only briefly and late in the fight.
By sunset, only one hour after the battle began, the Castilian position was indefensible and the situation quite desperate. When the Castilian royal standard-bearer fell, the already demoralized troops on the rear thought their King was dead and started to flee in panic; in a matter of moments this became a general rout where Juan of Castile himself had to run at full speed to save his life, leaving behind not only common soldiers but also many still dismounted noblemen.
The Portuguese pursued them down the hill and, with the battle won, killed many more while there was still light enough to see the enemy.
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During the night and throughout the next day, as many as 5000 more Castilians were killed by the neighbouring towns' villagers; according to Portuguese tradition surrounding the battle, there was a woman called Brites de Almeida, the Padeira of Aljubarrota (the baker-woman of Aljubarrota), said to be very tall, strong, and to possess six fingers on each hand
, who ambushed and killed by herself eight Castilian soldiers as they stormed her bakery in the town of Aljubarrota itself. This story in particular is clouded in legend and hearsay. But the popular intervention in the massacre of Castilian troops after the battle is, nevertheless, historical and typical of battles in this period.
In the morning of the following day, the true dimension of the battle was revealed: in the field, the bodies of Castilians were enough to dam the creeks surrounding the small hill. In face of this, the Portuguese King offered the enemy survivors an amnesty and free transit home; an official mourning was decreed in Castile that would last until the Christmas of 1387. The French cavalry contingent suffered yet another defeat (after Crécy and Poitiers) by English defensive tactics. The battle of Agincourt
decades later would show that they still had a lesson to learn.
In October 1385, Nuno Álvares Pereira led a pre-emptive attack against Mérida
, in Castilian territory, defeating an even larger Castilian army than at Aljubarrota in the battle of Valverde
, in Valverde de Mérida
.
Scattered border skirmishes with Castilian troops would persist for five years more until the death of John I of Castile in 1390, but posed no real threat to the Portuguese crown; recognition from Castile would arrive only in 1411 with the signature of the Treaty of Ayllón
(Segovia
).
As stated above this victory assured that John of Aviz was the uncontested King of Portugal and the House of Aviz ascended to the crown of Portugal. In 1386, the closeness of relations between Portugal and England resulted in a permanent military alliance with the Treaty of Windsor, the eldest still active in existence.
His marriage to Philippa of Lancaster
in 1387 initiated the Portuguese second dynasty, and their children went on to make historically significant contributions in their own right. Duarte, or Edward of Portugal, became the eleventh King of Portugal, and was known as "The Philosopher" and "The Eloquent". Henrique, or Henry the Navigator, sponsored expeditions to Africa.
Kingdom of Portugal
The Kingdom of Portugal was Portugal's general designation under the monarchy. The kingdom was located in the west of the Iberian Peninsula, Europe and existed from 1139 to 1910...
and the Crown of Castile
Crown of Castile
The Crown of Castile was a medieval and modern state in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accession of the then King Ferdinand III of Castile to the vacant Leonese throne...
on 14 August 1385. Forces commanded by King John I of Portugal
John I of Portugal
John I KG , called the Good or of Happy Memory, more rarely and outside Portugal the Bastard, was the tenth King of Portugal and the Algarve and the first to use the title Lord of Ceuta...
and his general Nuno Álvares Pereira
Nuno Álvares Pereira
Dom Nuno Álvares Pereira, O. Carm. , also spelled Nun'Álvares Pereira, was a Portuguese general of great success who had a decisive role in the 1383-1385 Crisis that assured Portugal's independence from Castile...
, with the support of English allies, opposed the army of King John I of Castile
John I of Castile
John I was the king of Crown of Castile, was the son of Henry II and of his wife Juana Manuel of Castile, daughter of Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena, head of a younger branch of the royal house of Castile...
with its Aragonese, Italian and French allies at São Jorge place, between the towns of Leiria
Leiria
Leiria is a city in Leiria Municipality in the Centro Region, Portugal. It is the capital of Leiria District. The city proper has 50,200 inhabitants and the entire municipality has nearly 120,000...
and Alcobaça, in central Portugal. The result was a decisive victory for the Portuguese, ruling out Castilian ambitions to the Portuguese throne, ending the 1383-1385 Crisis and assuring John as King of Portugal.
Portuguese independence was confirmed and a new dynasty, the House of Aviz
House of Aviz
The House of Aviz is a dynasty of kings of Portugal. In 1385, the Interregnum of the 1383-1385 crisis ended with the acclamation of the Master of the Order of Aviz, John, natural son of king Peter I and Dona Teresa Lourenço as king...
, was established. Scattered border confrontations with Castilian troops would persist until the death of John I of Castile in 1390, but these posed no real threat to the new dynasty. To celebrate his victory and acknowledge divine help, John I of Portugal ordered the construction of the monastery of Santa Maria da Vitória na Batalha and the founding of the town of Batalha
Batalha
Batalha is a town located in the Batalha Municipality in Leiria District, Pinhal Litoral Subregion, Centro Region, with 7,500 inhabitants.It is the seat of the municipality of the same name with 103.56 km² of area and 15,002 inhabitants , subdivided into 4 parishes Batalha is a town...
(Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
for "battle", bɐˈtaʎɐ). The king, his wife Philippa of Lancaster
Philippa of Lancaster
Philippa of Lancaster, LG was a Queen consort of Portugal. Born into the royal family of England, her marriage with King John I secured the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance and produced several famous children who became known as the "Illustrious Generation" in Portugal...
, and several of his sons are buried in this monastery, today a UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
.
Prelude
The end of the 14th century in Europe was a time of revolution and crisis, with the Hundred Years' WarHundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of separate wars waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings...
devastating France, the Black Death
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
decimating the continent, and famine afflicting the poor. Portugal was no exception. In 1383, on October, King Ferdinand I of Portugal
Ferdinand I of Portugal
Ferdinand I , sometimes referred to as the Handsome or rarely as the Inconstant , was the ninth King of Portugal and the Algarve, the second son of Peter I and his wife, Constance of Castile...
died with no son to inherit the crown. The only child of his marriage with Leonor Telles de Menezes
Leonor Telles de Menezes
Leonor Telles de Menezes was a queen consort of Portugal and regent during the years 1383–1385. She was the wife of a Portuguese nobleman from whom she was forcibly divorced by King Ferdinand I, who afterward married her...
was a girl, Princess Beatrice of Portugal
Beatrice of Portugal
Beatrice was the only surviving child of King Ferdinand I of Portugal and his wife, Leonor Telles de Menezes. She married King John I of Castile. In the absence of a male heir, she claimed the throne of Portugal, supported by her husband. This led to the 1383–1385 Crisis, in which the Portuguese...
.
In April of that same year the King signed the Treaty of Salvaterra de Magos
Treaty of Salvaterra
The Treaty of Salvaterra de Magos was an agreement signed in 1383 between Portugal and Castile in order to end a period known in Portugal as the Fernandine Wars ....
with King Juan I of Castile. The treaty determined that Princess Beatrice was to marry Juan I, king of Castile, and the Crown of Portugal would belong to the descendants of this union. This situation left the majority of the Portuguese discontent, and the Portuguese nobility was unwilling to support the claim of the princess because that could mean the incorporation of Portugal to Castile; also the powerful merchants of the capital, Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, were enraged from being excluded from the negotiations. Without an undisputed option, Portugal remained without king between 1383 and 1385, in an interregnum
Interregnum
An interregnum is a period of discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order...
known as the 1383–1385 Crisis
1383–1385 Crisis
The 1383–1385 Crisis was a period of civil war in Portuguese history that began with the death of King Ferdinand I of Portugal, who left no male heirs, and ended with the accession to the throne of King John I in 1385, in the wake of the Battle of Aljubarrota.In Portugal, this period is also known...
.
The first clear act of hostility was taken in December 1383 by the faction of John (João), the Grand Master of the Aviz Order (and a natural son of Peter I of Portugal
Peter I of Portugal
Peter I , called the Just , was the eighth King of Portugal and the Algarve from 1357 until his death. He was the third but only surviving son of Afonso IV of Portugal and his wife, princess Beatrice of Castile....
), with the murder of Count Andeiro. This prompted the Lisbon merchants to name him "rector and defender of the realm". However, the Castilian king would not relinquish his and his wife claims to the throne. In an effort to normalize the situation and secure the crown on his head or in the head of Beatrice, he forced Leonor to abdicate from the regency. In April 1384, in Alentejo, a punitive expedition was promptly defeated by Nuno Álvares Pereira, leading a much smaller Portuguese army at the Battle of Atoleiros
Battle of Atoleiros
The Battle of Atoleiros took place on 6 April 1384, between a Portuguese force and a punitive expedition from Castile sent by John I. The battle took place near the population centre of the same name in Alentejo...
. This marked the first use of English defensive tactics on the Iberian peninsula, reportedly without any casualties to the Portuguese.
A larger second expedition led by the Castilian king himself reached and besieged Lisbon for four months before being forced to retreat by a shortage of food supplies due to harassment from Nuno Álvares Pereira, and the bubonic plague
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
.
In order to secure his claim, John of Aviz engaged in politics and intense diplomatic negotiations with both the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
and England. On 6 April 1385, (the anniversary of the "miraculous" battle of Atoleiros, a fortuitous date), the council of the kingdom (cortes in Portuguese) assembled in Coimbra
Coimbra
Coimbra is a city in the municipality of Coimbra in Portugal. Although it served as the nation's capital during the High Middle Ages, it is better-known for its university, the University of Coimbra, which is one of the oldest in Europe and the oldest academic institution in the...
and declared him King John I of Portugal. After his accession to the throne, John I of Portugal proceeded to gain the cities where the military commanders have supported Princess Beatrice and her husband's claims, namely Caminha
Caminha
Caminha is a municipality in the north-west of Portugal, 21 km north from Viana do Castelo, located in the Viana do Castelo District.The municipality has a total area of 137.4 km² and 16,839 inhabitants ....
, Braga
Braga
Braga , a city in the Braga Municipality in northwestern Portugal, is the capital of the Braga District, the oldest archdiocese and the third major city of the country. Braga is the oldest Portuguese city and one of the oldest Christian cities in the World...
and Guimarães
Guimarães
Guimarães Municipality is located in northwestern Portugal in the province of Minho and in the Braga District. It contains the city of Guimarães.The present Mayor is António Magalhães Silva, elected by the Socialist Party.-Parishes:-Economy:...
among others.
Enraged by this "rebellion", Juan I ordered a 31 000-strong two-pronged invasion in May. The smaller Northern force sacked and burnt populations along the border, including the open city of Viseu
Viseu
Viseu is both a city and a municipality in the Dão-Lafões Subregion of Centro Region, Portugal. The municipality, with an area of 507.1 km², has a population of 99,593 , and the city proper has 47,250...
, before being defeated by local Portuguese nobles in the battle of Trancoso
Battle of Trancoso
The Battle of Trancoso was fought in 29 May of 1385 between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Crown of Castile.Following the coronation of João of Aviz, John I of Castile sent an army into the Portuguese region of Beira in retaliation for Portuguese defiance, where they committed all the kinds of...
, on the first week of June.
On the news of the invasion by the Castilians, John I of Portugal's army met with Nuno Álvares Pereira
Nuno Álvares Pereira
Dom Nuno Álvares Pereira, O. Carm. , also spelled Nun'Álvares Pereira, was a Portuguese general of great success who had a decisive role in the 1383-1385 Crisis that assured Portugal's independence from Castile...
, the Constable of Portugal
Constable of Portugal
Constable of Portugal or Constable of the Kingdom was a title created by the King of Portugal Ferdinand I in 1382, to substitute the title Alferes Mór do Reino. The constable was the second most powerful person in the kingdom, after the King of Portugal...
, in the town of Tomar
Tomar
Tomar Municipality has a total area of 351.0 km² and a total population of 43,007 inhabitants.The municipality is composed of 16 parishes, and is located in Santarém District...
. There, they decided to face the enemy in battle, before they could get close to Lisbon and besiege it again.
Along with its English
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
allies who arrived on the 1385 passover, consisting of a company of about 100 English longbowmen, veterans from the Hundred Years War, sent to honor the 1373 alliance
Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373
The Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373 was signed between King Edward III of England and King Ferdinand and Queen Eleanor of Portugal. It established a treaty of "perpetual friendships, unions [and] alliances" between the two seafaring nations...
(presently the oldest active treaty in the world). The Portuguese set out to intercept the invading army near the town of Leiria
Leiria
Leiria is a city in Leiria Municipality in the Centro Region, Portugal. It is the capital of Leiria District. The city proper has 50,200 inhabitants and the entire municipality has nearly 120,000...
. Nuno Álvares Pereira took the task of choosing the ground for the battle. The chosen location was São Jorge near Aljubarrota, in a small flattened hill surrounded by creeks, with the very small settlement of Chão da Feira (Fair's Ground) at its widest point, still present today.
Portuguese dispositions
At around 10 o'clock in the morning of 14 August, the army took its position at the north side of this hill, facing the road where the enemy would soon appear. As in other defensive battles of the 14th century (CrécyBattle of Crécy
The Battle of Crécy took place on 26 August 1346 near Crécy in northern France, and was one of the most important battles of the Hundred Years' War...
, for example, or Poitiers
Battle of Poitiers (1356)
The Battle of Poitiers was fought between the Kingdoms of England and France on 19 September 1356 near Poitiers, resulting in the second of the three great English victories of the Hundred Years' War: Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt....
), the dispositions were the following: dismounted cavalry and infantry in the centre with archers
English longbow
The English longbow, also called the Welsh longbow, is a powerful type of medieval longbow about 6 ft long used by the English and Welsh for hunting and as a weapon in medieval warfare...
occupying the flanks. Notably, on the vanguard's left wing (later covering the left flank), a company composed by some two hundred unmarried young nobles is remembered to history as the "Ala dos Namorados" (Sweethearts' Flank); the right wing, also two hundred strong, known as "Ala de Madressilva" or Honeysuckle Flank, didn't achieve the same heroic fame. On either side, the army was protected by natural obstacles (in this case, creeks and steep slopes). In the rear, reinforcements were at hand, commanded by John of Portugal himself. In this topographically
Topography
Topography is the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those ofplanets, moons, and asteroids...
high position, the Portuguese could observe the enemy's arrival and were protected by a steep slope in their front. The rear of the Portuguese position, which was in fact its front in the final battle, was at the top of a narrow slope, which came up to a small village, and was further constricted by a complex series of interlocking trenches and caltrops designed to surprise and trap the enemy cavalry. This trenching tactic was developed around this time and used extensively by both the English in France and the Portuguese in the rare set-piece battles of the Crisis of the Succession.
Castile arrives
In response of this movement, the Portuguese army inverted its dispositions and headed to the South slope of the hill. Since they were fewer than the enemy and had less ground to cover, they attained their final position very early in the afternoon. To calm the soldiers' nervousness and to improve his army's defensive position, general Nuno Álvares Pereira ordered the construction of a system of ditches, pitches and caltrop
Caltrop
A caltrop is an antipersonnel weapon made up of two or more sharp nails or spines arranged in such a manner that one of them always points upward from a stable base...
s. This application of typical English tactical procedures had also been used by the Portuguese on the previous battle of Atoleiros and was especially effective against cavalry (the speciality of both the Castilian and the French armies).
Around six o'clock in the afternoon the Castilian army was ready for battle. According to John of Castile's own words, in his report of the battle, his soldiers were by then very tired from the march that started early in the morning under a blazing August sun. There was no time to halt now, and the battle would soon begin.
Battle
Battle of Crécy
The Battle of Crécy took place on 26 August 1346 near Crécy in northern France, and was one of the most important battles of the Hundred Years' War...
, the defending archers and crossbowmen, along with the ditches and pits, did most of the work. The losses on the cavalry were heavy and the effect of its attack completely null. Support from the Castilian rear was late to come and the knights that did not perish in the combat were made prisoners and sent to the Portuguese rear.
At this point the main Castilian force entered the battle. Their line was enormous, due to the great number of soldiers. In order to get to the Portuguese line, the Castilians had to disorganize themselves, to squeeze in the space between the two creeks that protected the flanks. It was not an auspicious start. At this time, the Portuguese reorganized. The vanguard of Nuno Álvares Pereira divided into two sectors. Since the worst was still to come, John of Portugal ordered the retreat of the archers and crossbowmen, and the advance of his rear troops, through the space opened between the vanguards. With all troops needed at the front, there were no men available to guard the knight prisoners. John of Portugal ordered them to be killed on the spot and proceeded to deal with the approaching Castilians.
Advancing uphill with the sun on their backs, squashed between the funnelling Portuguese defensive works and their own advancing rear, and under a heavy rain of English longbowmen's arrows fired from behind the Portuguese line and crossbow quarrels from behind both the Sweethearts' and the Honeysuckle wings on their flanks, the Castilians did their best to win the day. The Castilian knights on the main body were forced to dismount and break in half their unwieldy four metres-long lances in order to join the constricted melèe alongside their infantry.
At this stage of the battle, both sides sustained heavy losses, especially on the "Ala dos Namorados" where the Portuguese students became renowned for holding off the heavily armoured knights of the Castilian wings who, still on horseback, attempted to flank the Portuguese lines. A similar attack was more successful on the right "Honeysucle" flank, though only briefly and late in the fight.
By sunset, only one hour after the battle began, the Castilian position was indefensible and the situation quite desperate. When the Castilian royal standard-bearer fell, the already demoralized troops on the rear thought their King was dead and started to flee in panic; in a matter of moments this became a general rout where Juan of Castile himself had to run at full speed to save his life, leaving behind not only common soldiers but also many still dismounted noblemen.
The Portuguese pursued them down the hill and, with the battle won, killed many more while there was still light enough to see the enemy.
Aftermath
Polydactyly
Polydactyly or polydactylism , also known as hyperdactyly, is a congenital physical anomaly in humans, dogs, and cats having supernumerary fingers or toes....
, who ambushed and killed by herself eight Castilian soldiers as they stormed her bakery in the town of Aljubarrota itself. This story in particular is clouded in legend and hearsay. But the popular intervention in the massacre of Castilian troops after the battle is, nevertheless, historical and typical of battles in this period.
In the morning of the following day, the true dimension of the battle was revealed: in the field, the bodies of Castilians were enough to dam the creeks surrounding the small hill. In face of this, the Portuguese King offered the enemy survivors an amnesty and free transit home; an official mourning was decreed in Castile that would last until the Christmas of 1387. The French cavalry contingent suffered yet another defeat (after Crécy and Poitiers) by English defensive tactics. The battle of Agincourt
Battle of Agincourt
The Battle of Agincourt was a major English victory against a numerically superior French army in the Hundred Years' War. The battle occurred on Friday, 25 October 1415 , near modern-day Azincourt, in northern France...
decades later would show that they still had a lesson to learn.
In October 1385, Nuno Álvares Pereira led a pre-emptive attack against Mérida
Mérida, Spain
Mérida is the capital of the autonomous community of Extremadura, western central Spain. It has a population of 57,127 . The Archaeological Ensemble of Mérida is a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1993.- Climate :...
, in Castilian territory, defeating an even larger Castilian army than at Aljubarrota in the battle of Valverde
Battle of Valverde (1385)
The Battle of Valverde was fought in 14 October 1385, near Valverde de Mérida, Castile, between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Crown of Castile, and was part of the Portuguese Crisis of 1383–1385.-Prelude:...
, in Valverde de Mérida
Valverde de Mérida
Valverde de Mérida is a municipality located in the province of Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain. According to the 2005 census , the municipality has a population of 1193 inhabitants....
.
Scattered border skirmishes with Castilian troops would persist for five years more until the death of John I of Castile in 1390, but posed no real threat to the Portuguese crown; recognition from Castile would arrive only in 1411 with the signature of the Treaty of Ayllón
Treaty of Ayllón
The Treaty of Ayllón was a peace treaty signed between the Kingdom of Portugal and Crown of Castile in 1411....
(Segovia
Segovia
Segovia is a city in Spain, the capital of Segovia Province in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is situated north of Madrid, 30 minutes by high speed train. The municipality counts some 55,500 inhabitants.-Etymology:...
).
As stated above this victory assured that John of Aviz was the uncontested King of Portugal and the House of Aviz ascended to the crown of Portugal. In 1386, the closeness of relations between Portugal and England resulted in a permanent military alliance with the Treaty of Windsor, the eldest still active in existence.
His marriage to Philippa of Lancaster
Philippa of Lancaster
Philippa of Lancaster, LG was a Queen consort of Portugal. Born into the royal family of England, her marriage with King John I secured the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance and produced several famous children who became known as the "Illustrious Generation" in Portugal...
in 1387 initiated the Portuguese second dynasty, and their children went on to make historically significant contributions in their own right. Duarte, or Edward of Portugal, became the eleventh King of Portugal, and was known as "The Philosopher" and "The Eloquent". Henrique, or Henry the Navigator, sponsored expeditions to Africa.