Juan Pacheco

Juan Fernández Pacheco y Téllez Girón (1419 in Belmonte – 1 October 1474 in Trujillo), was a Castilian noble of Portuguese descent who rose to power in the last years of the reign of Juan II of Castile and came to dominate the government of Castile during the reign of his son and successor Henry IV of Castile. His titles included, among others, Marquess of Villena, Duke of Escalona and Master of the Order of Santiago.

Juan Pacheco was the son of Alfonso Téllez Girón y Vázquez de Acuña, and María Pacheco (the daughter of Juan Fernández Pacheco, first lord of Belmonte, and Agnes Téllez de Meneses). The family, of Portuguese nobility, had been exiled to Castile after the battle of Aljubarrota (1385), and counted, among its main possessions in Belmonte, the Alcázar, built by Prince Don Juan Manuel, and later the castle of Belmonte, built by Pacheco in 1456 after becoming Marquess of Villena. The close relationship of the Pacheco family and the Castilian crown is evidenced, for example, in the fact that Pacheco's childhood playmate was Henry IV of Castile. In his youth, he served as a page to Àlvaro de Luna, who later brought him to court to serve Prince Henry.

Pacheco became the prince's confidant, and this friendship would continue when his master became king Henry IV of Castile. Pacheco intervened in major political decisions. In January 1442, aged 22, he had reached the office of chamberlain of the prince, the highest position in the house of the heir after the steward, a dignity still in the hands of the constable Álvaro de Luna. That same year he joined the lordship of Moguer via his marriage to María Portocarrero, who had an important legacy, which was later lost. Pacheco later strove to recover it.

Pacheco was appointed Marquess of Villena, the first title of marquess conferred by a Castilian monarch, in 1445 after the first Battle of Olmedo. He negotiated the title of Master of the Order of Calatrava for his brother, Pedro Girón. In the conflict that arose soon after between King John II of Castile and Prince Henry, Pacheco mediated on behalf of the prince, taking Álvaro de Luna as a mediator for the king. The agreement would benefit both mediators.

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