We have already spoken on other occasions of women who had a more or less prominent participation in the war. We saw them Viking, Welsh, Breton and, in short, of various nationalities; among them there were several Spanish women and today we are going to insist with the national females remembering the figure of the Lady of Arintero, the daughter of a Leonese nobleman who, in the absence of a male brother, took the armor and the sword to represent his family in the War of the Castilian Succession in the last quarter of the 15th century.
Arintero is a tiny town in the municipality of Valdelugueros, province of León, located in the heart of the Cantabrian mountain range. Today he barely has fourteen neighbors but five hundred and forty-four years ago, without being much older, he would have a few more, probably around a hundred.
In any case, the local lord was Count García, a hidalgo de solar, that is, he had a manor house and all four of his grandparents had accredited hidalguía (what was called "on all four sides"). With such a condition, he was obliged to contribute an armored knight to the royal army.
León belonged to the Crown of Castile, which in 1475 was involved in a succession conflict after the death without an heir of King Enrique IV. He had had a single daughter, Juana de Trastámara, born in 1462 and proclaimed Princess of Asturias but placed under suspicion from the outset when the idea spread that in reality the paternity corresponded to the royal favorite, Beltrán de la Cueva, hence They nicknamed her la Beltraneja she, just as the monarch was called Enrique the Impotent .
It is impossible to know the truth for sure because Juana's mortal remains disappeared during the famous Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 (she was buried there) and, therefore, her DNA cannot be verified. But then the opponents of Enrique took advantage of the rumor to refuse to accept that succession and start a civil war with Juana's half-brother, the infante Alfonso, as a candidate for the throne; they even proclaimed him in a grotesque act, the so-called Farsa de Ávila, during which a straw doll representing the monarch was overthrown.
In the end, peace was signed in the Concordia de Guisando of 1468, but the question of succession remained unspecified because, although Alfonso died that same year, the witness was picked up by his sister, Isabel. A year later, she married her cousin Fernando de Ella, heir to the Crown of Aragon, disobeying the king's decision to marry her to Carlos de Trastámara y Évreux, Prince of Viana. Until then Isabel had refused to act openly against the sovereign but her supporters moved to position themselves in the face of the succession.
And on December 11, 1474, the moment arrived, when an illness (or poison, according to some) took the life of Enrique IV and both Juana and Isabel proclaimed themselves queens, leading Castile to civil war. The Elizabethans had the alliance of the Aragonese while the Juanistas agreed to marry his uncle, the Portuguese monarch Alfonso V, to have the support of that country and add it to that of France, Aragon's rival. Other kingdoms remained neutral, such as England, Burgundy or Granada, despite expressing sympathy for Elizabeth.
The entry of Portuguese troops through Plasencia in aid of the Juanista party and the possibility that they might link up with the French troops alarmed the other side, who sent emissaries throughout Castile calling to arms. This is how the news reached Arintero, where the aforementioned Count García was unable to respond to the summons as he had no male children; only five daughters (or seven, according to versions), which forced him to go himself. Something that would not have been an impediment in other times, since he had taken part in numerous campaigns against the Muslims, except that now he was already combing gray hair and was not in a position to resume military life.
And it was humiliating for that hidalgo to know that several neighbors were preparing to march towards Benavente to join the army as pawns and, even more so, that the offspring of other hidalgos in the area were already on the march. For this reason, seeing her declining morale, one of her daughters, named Juana, made an unusual proposal:she would come on behalf of her family. At first, the idea was completely rejected by the count, but the truth is that there was no other alternative and little by little he began to accept her refusal until he began to accept it.
He finally ended up accepting. As the royal heralds had to travel throughout the kingdom and give each other time to prepare, there were two months ahead for Juana to receive training as a warrior, from learning to control the horse in the midst of combat to handle sword and spear, going through getting used to the weight and discomfort of the armor. But her determination made it possible, so that at the end of that time she was ready and decided to present herself in Benavente as the knight Diego Oliveros de Arintero, after sacrificing her long hair.
Her trip to the town of Zamora lasted four days and once there she joined the troops without anyone suspecting anything. For a whole year she had the opportunity to fight and perfect her knowledge of the trade of arms; the closed trap, the shapeless protections and a courage that she had nothing to envy to that of the most veteran preserved her identity. In February 1476 the kings laid siege to Zamora, which was in Portuguese hands, conquering it. The Portuguese withdrew before the plaza was fully taken, planning to entrench themselves in Toro.
Fernando realized this and went in pursuit of him, reaching them shortly before they arrived. The clash took place in the fields of a small town called Peleagonzalo, although it would go down in history as the Battle of Toro. Along with other knights, Juana charged against the enemy trying to snatch the ensign from the lieutenant but, in her impetus, she was isolated before three adversaries. She was able to get rid of two of her but the other one had the upper hand by struggling down the hill and managed to disarm and injure her.
Here the story varies. The legend narrates that in the heat of her battle the buttonholes of her doublet were torn and one of her breasts was exposed; It seems impossible wearing her breastplate. Although she quickly tried to cover herself, the thing did not go unnoticed and she began to spread word of mouth that there was a woman in the host. Another version says that they discovered her when they saw her bathing in the Duero, but the most likely is that she remained unconscious and it was her doctors, preparing to cure her, who realized that it was a female body.
In any case, the clamor of the soldiery reached the ears of the admiral of Castile, who thus learned of her true identity. Quite a problem because in the Middle Ages the relegation of women was absolute following the legislative tradition of the Siete Partidas and, therefore, it was unthinkable that they could participate in war. King Ferdinand himself found out about the strange episode and ordered Juana to be summoned to his presence. This was done and the whole story was explained to the monarch, who he was and the reason for his action. Fernando did not believe what he heard but, amazed at his courage, he did justice:he not only forgave the deception but also granted numerous and important favors to Juana.
Among them was, at her request, that all the residents of the town obtain the hidalguía, thus freeing them from their contribution of blood (that is, going to war) and money (the hidalgos did not pay taxes), prohibiting the establishment of the pecheros (common people, the one who pechaba, that is, paid taxes). He also gave permission for Arintero to organize an annual fair -something that at that time constituted an important economic incentive- and a party in memory of Toro's victory (which was not really such, since the battle ended in a draw, but was a political triumph in securing the throne for Elizabeth).
But, in addition, the sovereign granted him permission to add to his family's coat of arms a barracks carried by a lady wielding a spear and shield. Later, some verses were added apocryphally that today can be read on a plaque in the presumed house where she was born (a reconstruction, actually, since the original was destroyed in the 1936-39 Civil War). They say like this:
There are no documentary sources of all this history (except for a letter wielded before Felipe V by the authorities of Arintero to assert their privilege before the new monarch) but romances, so it is not known for sure where the truth ends and where the legend. It also has a sad ending that, once again, is different depending on the story. Some say that Juana was returning to Arintero when, on her way through the town of La Cándana (near Valdelugueros), a group of soldiers who were playing bowling tried to steal her privileges and since she did not allow them, a fight began in which They ended up murdering her.
The other version is more juicy and points to the kings, whose advisers should have made them see that those measures of grace, both tax exemptions and pardon for women, could set dangerous precedents and even grievances for other regions and the throne was not yet strong enough to afford joys. There are those who say that it was Isabel, always rigorous with the fulfillment of the laws or wishing, effectively, to demonstrate her determination before the nobility; perhaps even out of jealousy of her, excessively interpreting a new weakness of her husband for her opposite sex. So several men were sent after Juana to demand the return of her documents and when she refused to hand them over there was an altercation that ended with her death.