19/08/2026
♔⚔️♚ | The Battle of Aljubarrota – 14 August 1385
At around six o’clock in the evening on 14 August 1385, that is, 641 years ago, the Portuguese army, consisting of little more than six thousand men-at-arms and two hundred archers from the English allies, commanded by King John I of Portugal and Count Nuno Álvares Pereira, the 2nd Constable of Portugal, distinguished themselves in battle by confronting and defeating the Castilian army of thirty thousand soldiers and two thousand knights, together with their French allies, led by King John I of Castile, thereby reaffirming the independence of the Kingdom of Portugal.
📜 Background:
Following the death of King Ferdinand I of Portugal, the Crisis of 1383–1385 began, as the king's male children by Queen Leonor Telles de Menezes had died, while Beatrice (1372–1410), Infanta of Portugal, had married King John I of Castile. Thus, in order to prevent the annexation of Portugal by the Crown of Castile, an attempt was made to keep her away from the succession.
The threat of union — which amounted, in practice, to integration — between Portugal and the Crown of Castile was extremely strong, as a result of the Treaty of Salvaterra de Magos of 1383. The bourgeoisie was also dissatisfied with the regency of Queen Leonor Telles, whom they accused of immoral conduct, and with her lover, Count Andeiro, as well as with the succession arrangements.
John, Master of Avis, was the son of King Peter I of Portugal and Teresa Lourenço, who, according to some accounts, was the daughter of the Lisbon merchant Lourenço Martins, known as "o da Praça", an honoured citizen of Lisbon and son of Martim Lourenço; according to others, she was a Galician lady who served Queen Inês de Castro.
As John was the illegitimate son of King Peter I and Teresa Lourenço, the king is said to have entrusted John's education to Lourenço Martins "o da Praça", and, following his death, to Nuno Freire de Andrade, Master of the Order of Christ, who took responsibility for his instruction and education. In 1363, John was appointed Grand Master of the Order of Avis.
Persecuted by Queen Leonor Telles, who even ordered his imprisonment — from which he was eventually released by his half-brother King Ferdinand, following the intervention of the Earl of Cambridge — it was during this imprisonment that the Master is said to have conceived the idea that his destiny had something great in store for him.
Following the death of King Ferdinand I of Portugal, the Crisis of 1383–1385 began, as the king's male children by Queen Leonor Telles had died; Beatrice, Infanta of Portugal, had married King John I of Castile, and therefore, in order to prevent the annexation of Portugal by the Kingdom of León and Castile, an attempt was made to exclude her from the succession.
The threat of union — which amounted to integration — between Portugal and Castile and León was extremely strong as a result of the Treaty of Salvaterra de Magos of 1383. The bourgeoisie was also dissatisfied with the regency of Queen Leonor Telles and her lover, Count Andeiro, as well as with the succession arrangements.
Upon the death of the king, John, Master of Avis, assassinated Count Andeiro, the Queen's favourite.
By 1385, the country was divided into three factions claiming legitimacy to the succession:
On one side stood the legitimist party, loyal to Castile, which supported the cause of Infanta Beatrice, wife of the King of Castile. They considered her the only legitimate heir of the deceased king and believed that the Treaty of Salvaterra de Magos remained fully in force. This was a prenuptial agreement which provided for the union of the two Iberian kingdoms, as well as for the regency of the Dowager Queen Leonor Telles, widow of the deceased king.
Another faction was the legitimist-nationalist party, which rejected the idea of the loss of national independence — thereby excluding Beatrice — and consisted of the brothers of Inês de Castro, Álvaro Pires de Castro and Fernando de Castro. They supported the legitimacy of the claims of their nephews, the Infante John and the Infante Denis, sons of King Peter I and Inês, and therefore half-brothers of the late King Ferdinand. King Peter, known as "the Cruel", had legitimised them through a clandestine marriage.
The third faction, the Master's Party, was strictly national, popular and urban. It advocated a Portuguese king and placed national sovereignty and independence above any question of legitimacy. This excluded Infanta Beatrice, Queen of Castile, as well as the sons of Inês de Castro, who lived in Castile and had, in fact, already fought on behalf of that kingdom.
For these supporters, among whom was the fervent Nuno Álvares Pereira, there was no alternative but to set aside the customary rules of succession and consider the throne vacant, in order to safeguard national sovereignty, and elect John, Master of Avis, as Rex Portucalensis, even though he was the illegitimate son of King Peter.
The task of persuading the Portuguese elite gathered in the Three Estates, assembled in the Cortes at Coimbra on 6 April 1385, fell to Doctor João das Regras. Through an elaborate legal and rhetorical argument, he demonstrated that neither Beatrice nor the Infantes were legitimate heirs: Beatrice because the marriage between King Ferdinand and Leonor Telles was invalid, since the Queen's first marriage had never been legally dissolved; and, as for the children of Peter and Inês, because the king and his courtiers had made false declarations concerning the secret marriage of Peter and Inês, in an attempt to legitimise their children.
All those assembled were won over by João das Regras' impassioned oratory, and John was elected and acclaimed King by the Cortes. He became King of Portugal not by "right of his own", but through unanimous election, at the urging of the Three Estates, which, according to medieval law, constituted a sign of Divine will. King John I definitively consolidated both his position and that of Portugal when he was proclaimed King of Portugal by the Cortes assembled at Coimbra.
On 7 April, Nuno was appointed Constable of the Kingdom.
⚔️ The Battle of Aljubarrota:
Despite successive military defeats, including the naval battle and the siege of Lisbon and the Battle of Atoleiros, King John I of Castile did not abandon his claim to the Portuguese crown, which he believed derived from his ius uxoris through his marriage to Beatrice. Opposing this resolution, he invaded Portugal through Beira Alta in June 1385, this time at the head of his entire army and assisted by a strong contingent of French cavalry.
When news of the invasion arrived, King John I of Portugal was in Tomar with Nuno Álvares Pereira, Constable of the Kingdom, and his army. Once again, Nuno Álvares Pereira, the scourge of Portugal, took control of the situation and laid siege to the cities which had meanwhile declared their allegiance to Castile.
The decision was made to confront the Castilians before they could launch another siege of Lisbon. With the English allies, the Portuguese army intercepted the invaders near Leiria. Given the slow progress of the Castilian army, Nuno Álvares Pereira had enough time to choose favourable ground for the battle. On 14 August 1385, he had the opportunity to demonstrate all his military skill and genius at Aljubarrota.
The site chosen for the battle was a small flat-topped hill surrounded by streams, in the Campo de São Jorge, at Calvaria de Cima, near the town of Aljubarrota, between Leiria and Alcobaça.
However, the Portuguese army did not initially face the Castilians at this location. It first formed its lines on another slope of the hill and, once the Castilian forces were in sight, moved to the predetermined position. This caused considerable confusion among the Castilian troops.
Thus, at around ten o'clock in the morning on 14 August, the Portuguese army and the English allies, commanded by King John I of Portugal and the Constable of the Kingdom, took up their position on the northern slope of the hill, facing the road along which the Castilian army and its French allies, led by King John I of Castile and León, were expected to arrive.
The Portuguese deployment was as follows: infantry in the centre of the line, with a vanguard of crossbowmen and the two hundred English archers, equipped with the recently introduced longbow; two wings on the flanks, consisting of additional crossbowmen, cavalry and infantry. In the rear stood reinforcements and cavalry commanded personally by King John I of Portugal.
From this highly defensive position, the Portuguese watched the arrival of the Castilian army, protected by the slope of the hill.
The vanguard of the Castilian army reached the battlefield around lunchtime, under the scorching August sun. Seeing the defensive position occupied by what he regarded as rebels, the King of Castile made the expected decision to avoid attacking them on those terms.
Slowly, owing to the sheer size of the thirty-thousand-strong army, the Castilian forces began to move around the hill along the road to the east. The southern slope of the hill was gentler, and it was there, as Nuno Álvares had anticipated, that they intended to attack.
The Portuguese army therefore reversed its deployment and moved towards the southern slope of the hill, where the ground had previously been prepared.
Since the Portuguese force was much smaller and had a shorter distance to cover, it reached its final position well before the Castilian army had completed its deployment.
Nuno Álvares Pereira had ordered the construction of a series of palisades and other defensive works in front of the infantry line, protecting both the infantry and the crossbowmen. This type of defensive tactic, strongly reminiscent of the Roman legions, was re-emerging in Europe at that time.
At around six in the evening, with the sun beginning to set, the Castilians, still not fully deployed, decided — either precipitously or out of fear of having to fight at night — to begin their attack.
It is debatable whether the famous "square" formation actually existed, or whether it was simply Fernão Lopes' imaginative interpretation of reinforced wings. Traditionally, however, this is how the battle entered Portuguese history.
The attack began with a charge by the two thousand French cavalrymen, with their high saddles and heavy lances, advancing at full speed and in force in an attempt to break through the Portuguese infantry line.
However, the Portuguese defensive lines repelled the attack.
The narrowness of the battlefield, which made it difficult for the powerful cavalry to manoeuvre, together with the palisades — made of upright wooden stakes set apart only by the distance necessary for a man to pass through, preventing horses from getting between them — and the hail of bolts fired by the crossbowmen, assisted by two hundred English archers, caused the cavalry to become disorganised and confused long before it could reach the Portuguese infantry.
The cavalry suffered heavy losses and its attack achieved nothing. The Castilian rear guard, not yet properly deployed, was slow to provide assistance and, as a result, those knights who were not killed were taken prisoner by the Portuguese.
After this setback, the remaining and much larger part of the Castilian army attacked, clashing with the Portuguese infantry.
"Castile! Santiago!" they cried, to which the Portuguese replied with shouts of "Portugal! Saint George!"
The Castilian line was extremely extensive because of the enormous number of soldiers. As they advanced towards the Portuguese, the Castilians were forced to compress their ranks in order to fit into the space between the streams, which further disrupted their formation.
While the Castilians were becoming disorganised, the Portuguese reorganised their forces, with Nuno dividing the vanguard into two sectors in order to confront the new threat. It was here that the famous Ala dos Namorados — the "Wing of the Sweethearts" — distinguished itself with particular bravery.
Seeing that the worst of the Castilian assault was still to come, the King of Portugal ordered the withdrawal of the crossbowmen and English archers and advanced the rear guard through the opening in the front line.
Disorganised, lacking room to manoeuvre, and finally crushed between the Portuguese flanks and the advancing rear guard, the Castilians could do little but die or attempt to flee.
By dusk, the battle had already been lost by Castile.
King John of Castile hastily ordered a general retreat without organising a covering force. The Castilians then fled the battlefield in complete disorder.
The Portuguese cavalry immediately launched a pursuit of the fugitives, slaughtering them mercilessly. Some fugitives sought refuge in the surrounding area, only to be killed by the local population.
Here a Portuguese legend associated with the battle emerged: a woman named Brites de Almeida, remembered as the Baker of Aljubarrota, is said to have deceived, ambushed and killed several fleeing Castilians with her own hands. The story of this female executioner is certainly a legend dating from the period.
In any case, shortly afterwards Nuno Álvares Pereira ordered the pursuit to be halted and granted a truce to the fleeing troops.
At dawn the following day, the scale of the catastrophe suffered by the Castilians became clearly visible: there were so many corpses that they blocked the streams flanking the hill, while the deafening croaking of the crows added to the grim and macabre scene.
In addition to infantrymen, many Castilian nobles were killed, causing profound mourning throughout Castile.
Approximately four hundred Portuguese casualties were recorded, compared with more than four thousand Castilian dead.
The Battle of Aljubarrota represents one of the rare great pitched battles of the Middle Ages between two royal armies and was one of the most decisive events in the history of Portugal.
From a military perspective, it demonstrated the effectiveness of a new tactical approach in which dismounted men-at-arms were capable of defeating the powerful medieval cavalry, which from that point onwards began its decline.
Diplomatically, the victory reaffirmed the alliance between Portugal and England, whose relations had already been strengthened by the Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Alliance, or Treaty of Westminster.
This alliance was reinforced the following year by the Treaty of Windsor and would be consolidated in 1387 by the marriage of King John I to the English princess Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and granddaughter of the English King Edward III. Their marriage produced the celebrated Ínclita Geração, the "Illustrious Generation" of Portuguese princes.
Politically, the victory resolved the dispute that had divided the Kingdom of Portugal and the Crown of Castile, allowing Portugal to assert itself definitively as an independent kingdom.
