Third Fernandine War | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Fernandine Wars | |||||||
![]() Coat of arms of the King John I of Castile. |
|||||||
|
|||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
![]() ![]() |
![]() |
||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() |
Decisive victory of John I of Castile
The Third Fernandine War was the last conflict of the Fernandine Wars, and took place between 1381–1382, between the Crown of Castile and the Kingdoms of Portugal and England. When Henry II of Castile (Henry of Trastamara) died in 1379, John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster claimed their rights of the throne of the Kingdom of Castile, and again found an ally in Ferdinand I of Portugal.
In 1381, breaking the 1373 Treaty of Santarem, King Ferdinand I of Portugal decided to attack Castile, thus initiating the Third Fernandine War. For this, he signed an alliance with the Kingdom of England, ruled at that time by the young King Richard II of England.
John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, also had, since 1371, claims to the Castilian throne, and saw in this deal a means of enforcement of this cause. In June, the Duke of Lancaster sent an English army (composed by the famous English archers) under the command of the Earl of Cambridge to Lisbon in support of the Portuguese troops in an incursion into the Castilian territory.
To prevent the English contingent being intercepted at sea by the navy of Castile, the Portuguese monarch planned a naval offensive against the Castilian fleet, anchored in Seville. In July 1381, from Lisbon, a Portuguese fleet under the command of João Afonso Telo, sailed towards the mouth of the Guadalquivir river, to prevent the passage of the Castilian fleet. At the same time, the Admiral Fernando Sánchez de Tovar sailed from its base, heading out to the Portuguese coasts. The Portuguese fleet was decisively defeated by the fleet of Don Fernando Sánchez de Tovar at the Battle of the Saltes Island, and the Castilian fleet obtained the total control of the Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile, the English troops disembarked in Lisbon without any problem.