Álvaro de Luna

Álvaro de Luna y Jarana (between 1388 and 1390 – 2 June 1453), Duke of Trujillo, 1st Count of San Esteban de Gormaz, was a Spanish politician. He was a favourite of King John II of Castile, a Constable of Castile and Grand Master of the military order of Santiago.

He was born between 1388 and 1390 at Cañete, in what is now the province of Cuenca, as the natural son of the Castilian noble don Álvaro Martínez de Luna, copero mayor (the page who poured drinks to a nobleman) of King Henry III of Castile, and María Fernández de Jarana, a common woman of great character and beauty.

He was introduced to the court as a page by his uncle Pedro de Luna, Archbishop of Toledo, in 1410. Pedro de Luna later became antipope as Benedict XIII, secluded at Peñíscola. Álvaro soon secured a commanding influence over John II, then a boy. During the regency of King John's uncle Ferdinand, which ended in 1412, he was not allowed to be more than a servant. When, however, Ferdinand was elected king of Aragon, and the regency was assumed by the king's mother, Catherine of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt, and granddaughter of King Peter of Castile, Álvaro became a very important person, the so-called "contino", or old friend of the King.

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