Juan Manuel, Duke of Penafiel
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Don Juan Manuel, Infante of Castile (Escalona, May 5? 1282–Cordoba, 1349), was the son of Infante Don Juan Manuel and his second wife Beatrice of Savoy, and grandson of Ferdinand III of Castile. He is known for composing Libro de los ejemplos del conde Lucanor y de Patronio, one of the earliest works of prose in Castilian Spanish.
He inherited the Dominion of Villena (he'd later be Duke of Villena). He was also Lord of Elche, which he later lost to James II of Aragón, and Governor of Murcia.
Juan Manuel was called "el Scritor", "the writer".
In 1299, Juan Manuel married Isabel of Majorca (d c 1301), daughter of James II of Majorca (died 1301).
In 1304 he was entrusted by the queen-mother, Dona Maria de Molina, to conduct political negotiations with James II of Aragon on behalf of her son, Ferdinand IV, then under age. His diplomacy was successful and his marriage on 1311 to Constanza of Aragon (1300-27), daughter of James II and Blanche of Anjou, added to his prestige.
In 1312, his cousin Ferdinand IV of Castile died, leaving a one year-old son, Alfonso XI of Castile. The child king's regents, Pedro of Castile and Juan of Castile stripped Juan Manuel of the governorship of Murcia, saying people didn't want him (which was true).
In 1319, after Don Pedro and Don Juan died in battle, Don Juan Manuel became regent of the young king alongside the boy's grandmother, Queen Maria de Molina, and his uncle Don Felipe of Castile.
In 1325, he proposed the young king to marry his daughter Constanza, born from his second marriage. The courts agreed to it, but the king preferred to marry his cousin Maria of Portugal instead. The contracted marriage was annulled in 1327, and the King imprisoned his ex-wife at Toro. Offended, Don Juan Manuel left Castile and entered the service of his father-in-law James II of Aragon.
After Alfonso XI came of age, he asked Don Juan Manuel's help to pacify the kingdom. Don Juan Manuel asked for the title of Duke, the right to mint coins and that his rents be raised from 400.000 to 600.000 maravedies per year. He didn't get everything, but his rights were confirmed and he became again Governor of Murcia. That same year, 1329, he married one last time to Blanca Núñez de Lara (also called de La Cerda).
It was not the last time Don Juan Manuel and Alfonso XI were at odds. On 1335, he refused to enter the battle against the moors during the siege of Gibraltar. He left for Aragon, but returned the same year, just to leave again soon after because Don Juan Manuel claimed Alfonso XI was preventing his daughter Constanza to leave Castile to marry Pedro of Portugal. They patched things in 1337.
He successfully fought alongside his cousin Sancho IV of Castile in the Battle of Rio Salado (October 30, 1340).
In 1343, he fought alongside Alfonso XI against the moors in the battle of Algeciras, entering the city victoriously.
He retired from politics a couple of years later, devoting himself to literary efforts.
[edit] Children
By Constanza of Aragon:
- Costance Manuel (c 1323-1345), who married Pedro I of Portugal.
- Beatrice, died young
- Fernando Manuel (d c 1350), Lord of Escalona, Penafiel and Villena, who married 1346 Joana of Ampurias, a daughter of Ramón Berenguer, Count of Ampurias, himself a younger son of James II of Aragón. The couple had a daughter, Blanca Manuel (c 1348-1361), heiress of Villena, Escalona and Penafiel until 1361.
- Juana Manuel (1339-1381), who married 1350 Enrique II of Castile (1333-79) and became Queen of Castile.
Illegitimate by Inés de Castañeda:
- Sancho Manuel (1320-1347)
- Enrique Manuel (1340-1390)
[edit] Literary Works
Distinguished as an astute politician, Don Juan Manuel is an author of the highest eminence, and, considering the circumstances of his stormy life, his voluminousness is remarkable. The Libro de los Sabios, a treatise called Engenos de Guerra and the Libro de Cantares, a collection of verses, were composed between 1320 and 1327; but they have disappeared together with the Libro de la caballería (written during the winter of 1326, and the Reglas como se debe Irovar, a metrical treatise assigned to 1328-1334.
Of his surviving writings, Juan Manuel's Crónica abreviada was compiled between 1319 and 1325, while the Libro de la caza must have been written between 1320 and 1329; and during this period of nine years the Crania de Espana, the Crónica complida, and the Tratado sobre las armas were produced. The Libro del caballero et del escudero was finished before the end of 1326; the first book of the Libro de los estados was finished on 22 May 1330, while the second was begun five days later; the first book of El Conde Lucanor was written in 1328, the second in 1330, and the fourth is dated 12th of June 1335- We are unable to assign to any precise date the devout Tractado on the Virgin, dedicated to the prior of the monastery at Peñafiel, to which Don Juan Manuel bequeathed his manuscripts; but it seems probable that the Libro de las frailes predicadores is slightly later than the Libro de los estados; that the Libro de los castigos (left unfinished, and therefore known by the alternative title of Libro infinido) was written not later than 1333, and that the treatise De las maneras de amor was composed between 1334 and 1337.
The historical summaries, pious dissertations and miscellaneous writings are of secondary interest. The Libro del caballero et del escudero is on another plane; it is no doubt suggested by Raymond Lull's Libre del orde de cavalleria, but the points of resemblance have been exaggerated; the morbid mysticism of Lull is rejected, and the carefully finished style justifies the special pride which he author took in this performance. The influence of Lull's Blanquerna is likewise visible in the Libro de los estados; but here are marked divergences of substance which go to prove Don Juan Manuel's acquaintance with some version (not yet dentified) of the Barlaam and Josaphat legend. Nothing is more striking than the curious and varied erudition of the turbulent prince who weaves his personal experiences with historical or legendary incidents, with reminiscences of Aesop and Phaedrus, with the Disciplina clericalis of Petrus Alfonsi, with Kalilah and Dim-iah, with countless Oriental traditions, and with all the material of anecdotic literature which he embodies in the Libro de redecessor of Boccaccio in the province of romantic narrative.
The Cento novelle antiche are earlier in date, but these anonymous tales, derived from popular stories diffused throughout the world, lack the personal character which Don Juan lends to all he touches. They are simple, unadorned variants of folklore terms; El Conde Lucanor is essentially the production of a conscious artist, deliberative and selective in his methods. Don Juan Manuel has not Boccaccio's festive fancy nor his constructive skill; he is too persistently didactic and concerned to point a moral; but he excels in knowledge of human nature, in the faculty of ironic presentation, in tolerant wisdom and in luminous conciseness. He naturalizes the Eastern apologue in Spain, and by the laconic picturesqueness of his expression imports a new quality into Spanish prose which attains its full development in the hands of Juan de Valdes and Cervantes. Some of his themes are utilized for dramatic purposes by Lope de Vega in La Pobreza estimada, by Ruiz de Alarcon in La Prueba de las promesas, by Calderón in La Vida es sueño, and by Canizares in Don Juan de Espina en Milan: there is an evident, though remote, relation between the tale of the 'mancebo que se casó con una mujer muy fuerte y muy brava' and The Taming of the Shrew; and a more direct connection exists between some of Don Juan Manuel's 'ejemplos' and some of Andersen's fairy tales.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
