Coin of Alfonso XI, a ''
cornado'' made of
billon, dated ca. 1345. Some 600 years later, about 1949, while digging a conduit near the site of Fort Harrod in
Harrodsburg, Kentucky, an
electrician unearthed this coin, alongside eleven others, all buried in a leather bag. Spanish coinage was legal tender in the United States until 1857. While such finds are somewhat rare in
Kentucky, they are not extremely uncommon.
Historians believe that
merchants from
New Orleans traveled up the
Kentucky River, and perhaps a local person or tradesman either buried the coins or simply lost them.
'Alfonso XI of Castile' (Salamanca,
August 13,
1311 – Gibraltar,
March 26/
27,
1350) was the king of
Castile and
León, the son of
Ferdinand IV of Castile and his wife
Constance of Portugal.
He is variously known among Castillian kings as the Avenger or the Implacable, and as "He of Salado River." The first two names he earned by the ferocity with which he repressed the disorder of the nobles after a long minority; the third by his victory in the
Battle of Rio Salado over the last formidable African invasion of
Spain in
1340.
Alfonso XI never went to the insane lengths of his son
Pedro of Castile, but he could be bloody in his methods. He killed for reasons of state without form of trial. He openly neglected his wife,
Maria of Portugal, and had an ostentatious passion for
Eleanor of Guzman, who bore him ten children. This set Peter an example which he failed to better. It may be that his early death, during the Great Plague of 1350, at the
Siege of Gibraltar, only averted a desperate struggle with Peter, though it was a misfortune in that it removed a ruler of eminent capacity, who understood his subjects well enough not to go too far. He was the only European monarch to die during the
Black Death.
Marriage and children
Alfonso XI first married Costanza Manuel of Castile on 1325, but divorced her two years later. His second marriage, on 1328, was to
Maria of Portugal, daughter of
Alfonso IV of Portugal. She was the mother of his son
Pedro of Castile.
By his mistress,
Eleanor of Guzman, he had ten children:
★ Pedro Alfonso of Castile, Lord of
Aguilar (
1330 -
1338).
★ Juana Alfonso of Castile, Lady of
Trastamara (born 1330).
★ Sancho Alfonso of Castile, Lord of
Ledesma (
1331 -
1343).
★
Henry II of Castile (
1334 -
1379).
★
Fadrique Alfonso of Castile, Master of the
Order of Santiago and Lord of
Haro; (born
1335).
★ Fernando Alfonso of Castile, Lord of
Ledesma.
★
Tello of Castile, First Lord of
Aguilar de Campoo (
1337-
1370).
★ Juan Alfonso of Castile, Lord of
Badajoz and
Jerez de la Frontera (
1341 -
1359).
★
Sancho of Alburquerque (
1342-
1375).
★ Pedro of Castile (
1345 -
1359).
References
★
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