Henry II of Castile

Henry II (Seville, 13 January 1334 – 29 May 1379 in Santo Domingo de la Calzada), better known as Henry of Trastámara (Spanish: 'Enrique de Trastámara', Galician: 'Henrique de Trastamar'), 1st Conde de Trastámara, before his coronation, was the illegitimate son of Alfonso XI of Castile and Eleanor of Guzmán. He took the throne after defeating and killing his half-brother Peter of Castile in the Castilian Civil War (1366–1369).

As head of a band of mercenaries, and with the aid of Bertrand du Guesclin, he drove Peter from his throne in 1366. He was then defeated the next year at the Battle of Nájera, and Peter was restored, when Peter lost the aid of some of his mercenaries. Henry re-invaded with French allies and defeated Peter at the Battle of Montiel in 1369; within days he captured the king and summarily executed his half brother personally. Henry then went to war against Portugal and England in the Hundred Years' War. For most of his reign he had to fight off the attempts of John of Gaunt, a son of Edward III of England, to claim the Castilian throne in right of his second wife, Peter's daughter, Infanta Constance of Castile.

On 27 July 1350, Henry married Juana Manuel, the daughter of Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena, head of a younger branch of the royal house of Castile. They had three children: John I (1358–1390), Eleanor (1361–1425), wife of Charles III of Navarre, and Joanna (1367–1374).

Henry was arguably the first ruler since the Visigothic King Ergica to utilise opposition to Jewish activities in Iberian Peninsula as part of his policy.

Ancestors