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Reviews of Books

The publication of Peter Such’s excellent English translation of Pero López de Ayala’s fourteenth-century Crónica del rey don Pedro by Liverpool University Press is welcome news. It must be pointed out that the Chronicles of Jean Froissart, Ayala’s contemporary eyewitness, written in French, has been available to English-language readers since the sixteenth century. Obviously, the availability of the best extant Castilian version of this historical period to English scholars is centuries overdue. The Crónica’s availability to a wide English-language readership not only brings Pedro’s tumultuous reign into sharp focus, but it will also no doubt result in a fuller appreciation of Ayala’s reputation as a prose stylist. Like Froissart during the years he spent in England, Ayala acquired singular perspectives living among the highest echelons of late-medieval Castilian society and was a witness to many of the events he recounts. English-language readers might find especially informative Ayala’s rendition of Pedro’s relations with England, Castile’s participation in several stages of the Hundred Years’ War and the chronicler’s rendition of English adventurism in continental and North African affairs. In addition to Pedro’s connections with England, this translation will promote renewed interest in his turbulent and controversial reign. Beginning in 1350, when Pedro ascended to the Castilian throne after his father’s premature death from the plague, his nineteenyear rule witnessed more than its share of personal and institutional upheavals. The fact that his actions earned him the contradictory sobriquets of el Cruel and el Justiciero is evidence of the divisiveness generated by his policies and actions, as much during his lifetime as in the years since. He spent his youth in the shadow of a brood of illegitimate half-brothers, much favoured by their father, Alfonso XI. The oldest, Enrique de Trastámara, would eventually challenge Pedro’s rule, kill him and usurp the Castilian throne. Among Pedro’s most notorious deeds—and grist for the propaganda mill—the king abandoned his bride, Blanche de Bourbon, niece of the King of France, shortly after their much anticipated and well-attended wedding in Valladolid in 1353. He fathered children with a mistress, María de Padilla, amidst claims of having married her—thus legitimizing their issue. Definitive proof of the validity of their marriage has remained a bone of contention, however. Pedro began a war with Aragon in 1361 and came close to vanquishing his namesake and rival, Pedro IV of Aragon (Pere III of Catalonia) known as the Ceremonious. This list of noteworthy events could go and on. Suffice it to say, that there is plenty of material here to be mined for a fuller understanding of the challenges faced by our medieval predecessors and those attempting to chronicle their lives. The best news about this three-volume Chronicle of King Pedro is that it is published as a bilingual edition, offering readers a page-by-page Castilian version (verso) and corresponding English translation (recto). This elaborate and helpful formatting—thank you computer deities —greatly enhances the text’s accessibility, in either language, while providing the reader with a convenient and comforting tool to clarify obscure or elusive linguistic constructions and more readily accept/ignore occasional textual inconsistencies and contradictions.