Sword of Castile

Part of the sword of Sancho IV, King of Castile from 1284-1295.

On 17 January 1284, at Pamplona, a certain Anastre de Montpezat received compensation for horses lost while on campaign in Navarre and Castile. Anastre was a Gascon knight in the service of Edward I and got the money from Hugh de la Vic, 'familiar del rei d'Angleterre'.

The compensation was due from two years earlier, when Anastre was among a troop of Gascon knights and men-at-arms sent over the mountains to help Alfonso X of Castile fight Sancho, his second son. Alfonso wished to leave the crown to his grandsons by his deceased eldest son, Fernando, who had died in a war against the Moorish emirate of Granada. Sancho argued that he was the true heir, due to the old Castilian custom of proximity of blood and agnatic seniority i.e. a principle of inheritance whereby a monarch's children only inherit once the males of the elder generation are exhausted.

When war broke out inside Castile, Alfonso sent a request for military aid to his brother-in-law Edward I. This occurred at the same time as the final war in Wales between Edward and Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd. Gaston de Béarn, originally summoned to fight in Wales, persuaded the king he would be of more use south of the Pyrenees.

These concurrent wars show the vital importance of Gascony to the English crown. In January 1283 an army of 2400 Gascon knights and mounted and foot crossbowmen was transported over the sea to crush resistance in North Wales; several months later, 6 June, Gaston assembled 41 knights and 59 men-at-arms and their retinues at Bordeaux, and on 13 November led them over the Pyrenees to fight Sancho of Castile.