The Battle of Trancoso: how feuding Beira lords stopped a Castilian raid

The Castilians came into sight at the head of the valley in no hurry. For days they had ridden through the Beira, the high country of north-central Portugal, without meeting resistance. Behind the horsemen came their plunder: men, women and boys taken captive, cattle and beasts of burden, and a baggage train that Fernão Lopes, the Portuguese royal chronicler, put at more than seven hundred pack mules.1 source1 source

Across the road, a short half-league from Trancoso, stood a Portuguese line on foot. Earlier its leaders had sent a squire to the Castilian commander, Juan Rodríguez de Castañeda, inviting him to come their way, where dinner would be ready for him. Castañeda had been delighted, and promised the messenger a good horse as a reward if the Portuguese kept their word.2 sources2 sources

Seeing them now, Lopes wrote, the Castilians “were not much pleased”. They tried to slip past along the side of the valley. By the end of the day almost all their men-at-arms lay dead around a small hermitage dedicated to Saint Mark.1 source1 source

Portugal had been at war since the death of King Fernando I in October 1383. His only daughter, Beatriz, was married to Juan I of Castile, and Juan claimed the throne through her. Against him stood João, Master of the Order of Avis, Fernando's illegitimate half-brother, who had taken power in Lisbon in December 1383 and held the city through a Castilian siege in 1384.2 sources2 sources

On 6 April 1385 the Cortes, the assembly of the kingdom's estates, met at Coimbra and acclaimed the Master as King João I. That did not settle the war. Many castles still held for Beatriz, and João I spent April and May besieging them with his constable, Nuno Álvares Pereira. In early May they were before Guimarães, where the town fell on 6, 7 or 8 May and the castle held out into June.2 sources2 sources

Juan I of Castile was in Córdoba gathering a new army. His fleet was already blockading Lisbon. He planned to invade from the south-east, by Badajoz, and meanwhile ordered Pedro Tenorio, Archbishop of Toledo, to assemble men at Ciudad Rodrigo, just across the border from the Beira, and send them in to cut down the vines and the grain and do all the damage they could.2 sources2 sources

The captains at Ciudad Rodrigo did not wait for the archbishop. Lopes names six of them: Juan Rodríguez de Castañeda, the senior captain; Pero Suárez de Toledo, chief magistrate of Toledo; Álvar García de Albornoz, the king's chief cupbearer; João Rodrigues Maldorme, as the 1897 edition prints his name; Pero Suárez de Quiñones, captain of the ginetes; and Juan Alfonso de Trujillo. Some of their companions warned that the Beira was full of lords who would fight for it. Castañeda answered that this was exactly why he wanted to go there, to measure nobles against nobles.1 source1 source

He had a second argument. The Portuguese, he said, had sworn homage to Beatriz as heir in her father's lifetime and now broke their word, “and as they fail in this, so their feet and hands will fail them”. Lopes thought the real reason for the Castilians' boldness was simpler: they knew the Portuguese captains of the district were at odds and would not join forces, and none could stop them alone.2 sources2 sources

The Fundação Batalha de Aljubarrota, which runs the Aljubarrota battlefield centre, reconstructs the route. The column left Ciudad Rodrigo around 14 May, crossed the border near Almeida, which held for Castile, and began burning crops, vineyards and houses once it reached land loyal to João I. It skirted Pinhel, ravaged the plain of Trancoso and plundered the villages on the road to Viseu.3 sources3 sources

Viseu, 22 leagues from Ciudad Rodrigo by Lopes's reckoning, was one of the main towns of the Beira; the Fundação puts its population at about 6,000. It had no wall or fortress except its cathedral. Many townspeople crowded into the cathedral and the churches with what they could carry; others fled to the hills. The raiders stripped the churches of their silver but did not take captive those who had sheltered inside. The Fundação adds that they burned the town and stayed about three days.2 sources2 sources

The lords who should have stopped them were close at hand. Gonçalo Vasques Coutinho was alcaide, or royal governor, of Trancoso castle. The brothers Martim Vasques da Cunha and Gil Vasques da Cunha were at Linhares, and João Fernandes Pacheco at Ferreira de Aves. Coutinho and the Cunhas had not spoken to each other for some time, each accusing the other of seizing goods on his lands.2 sources2 sources

Neither side was strong enough to attack alone, and neither would give way. Lopes summed up their attitude with a proverb: “you're good and I'm good, so who will drive the donkey?” Their politics were no more settled. When Juan I first invaded, at the end of 1383, Martim Vasques had paid him homage at Guarda, while Coutinho waited to see who would win. At Coimbra in March 1385 Martim Vasques argued for the imprisoned Infante João, a son of Pedro I and Inês de Castro, before giving way to the Master.2 sources2 sources

João Fernandes Pacheco, the king's chief guard and the son of the old courtier Diogo Lopes Pacheco, rode the two leagues to Martim Vasques's house and told him it was shameful to let the Castilians rob the land before their eyes. Martim Vasques talked of his enmity with Coutinho, then gave way. Coutinho refused. Pacheco guessed why: he would not serve under Martim Vasques, who by rank should have led, and let him take the credit.2 sources2 sources

So Martim Vasques gave up the command. Coutinho could lead and keep the honour of whatever God granted them, he said, and to show he meant it he would come to dinner at Coutinho's house and they would all set out from there. Coutinho ordered a good meal. Martim Vasques, Gil Vasques, Pacheco and Egas Coelho, lord of Folgosinho, sat down with him, and Coutinho's wife, Leonor Gonçalves, moved among the guests visibly pleased.2 sources2 sources

Money helped too. People in Porto sent sums to Coutinho and Martim Vasques, with Pacheco as go-between and the king's knowledge. The historian Salvador Dias Arnaut, who wrote a book-length study of the battle, left the purpose open: to move consciences, to pay the usual costs of a campaign, or both.2 sources2 sources

The lords swore to help each other faithfully and decided to block the Castilians' road home. Their squire, Afonso Rodrigues Baticela, carried the challenge. Knowing the column would return past Trancoso, they drew up on the veiga, the flat farmland south of the town, where the Castilians had to pass. Lopes gives the Portuguese a little more than 300 lances: 150 under Martim Vasques's banner, 120 under Coutinho's, 30 under Pacheco's, and the rest with Gil Vasques and Egas Coelho.2 sources2 sources

There had been no time to raise trained foot soldiers, so the lords filled their ranks with men from the councils and farmers of the district. The Fundação puts them at a little over 1,000, most with no experience of arms, and without crossbowmen. The Castilians had the better men-at-arms and the ginetes; the Portuguese had more men on foot.2 sources2 sources

When the Castilians saw the Portuguese, they veered right towards the stream of Freches, hoping to pass between the Portuguese line and the rocky hillside. The Portuguese moved forward to face them by the hermitage of São Marcos. The Castilian captains held a council. Some said they should keep going with their booty and fight only if attacked. Others said that to avoid battle with an enemy in plain sight would be mocked as cowardice in Castile. The second view won, though Lopes thought it came from necessity more than courage.2 sources2 sources

According to the Fundação, Castañeda had fought at Atoleiros the year before and seen Castilian cavalry fail against Portuguese spearmen on foot, so he ordered his men-at-arms to dismount. Only the ginetes stayed in the saddle. As the lines formed, the farmers on the Portuguese flanks lost their nerve and ran for the town. The Castilians took it as the start of a victory, sounded their trumpets and charged on foot, shouting “Castile! Santiago!” and the names of their families.2 sources2 sources

The Portuguese answered “Portugal and Saint George!”; Martim Vasques shouted “Cunha, Cunha!” and Pacheco “Ferreira!”. The ginetes rode down the fleeing peasants and killed many, which drove the survivors back into the line. The men-at-arms at the front never saw any of this. Lopes says the fight lasted a great part of the day and the blows were so heavy and thick that they could be heard in Trancoso. The Fundação reckons it began between ten and eleven in the morning and lasted about eight hours.2 sources2 sources

Ayala, later chancellor of Castile, who was himself taken prisoner at Aljubarrota, blamed that disorder. In his account the Portuguese stood still, let the Castilians come to them across the ploughland, and broke them. The Fundação thinks many of the captives freed themselves and joined in the fighting.3 sources3 sources

Lopes says no Castilian man-at-arms escaped. Only the ginetes got away, with many of the men left holding the knights' horses, who in the Fundação's reading mounted them and fled, and some foot soldiers who ran into the hills. Of the captains he named, only Quiñones, the leader of the ginetes, survived. He names more of the dead, among them a knight commander he calls the comendador das Olgas, Lopo Gonçalves “Iron Foot”, Ruy García de Salazar, adelantado of Cazorla, Álvaro Cansado and Guterre de Ferreira, with sons and brothers of some of them. He counts twelve leading men killed.2 sources2 sources

Gil Vasques took one knight, Garcia Guterres, alive so that he could say who had died and how it had all happened. On the Portuguese side, Lopes found no captain or man of any standing killed, only the village farmers cut down by the ginetes. The baggage train and the plunder were taken; many of the captives took back their own goods and more, and seized some of the men who had been leading them away. The lords went home with their men, “very friendly,” Lopes noted, “and afterwards wholly at odds.”2 sources2 sources

Neither chronicle dates the battle. Lopes puts the raid in May. Ayala has the raid ordered around Saint John's Day, 24 June, and the battle fought in July heat. In his book A Batalha de Trancoso, dated 1947 but published in 1951, Arnaut concluded that it was fought between 6 May and 8 June 1385, most probably in the first days of June.3 sources3 sources

Two finds narrowed it down. The Livro das Lembranças of the monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, published in 1968, records that Martim Vasques, Gonçalo Vasques and João Fernandes fought Castañeda near Trancoso “in the month of May” of the year 1423 of the Spanish era, which is 1385. And in 1966 the Spanish historian Carmen Batlle published the epitaph of Pero Suárez de Toledo, whose tomb had come from a Toledo convent to the Museu Marès in Barcelona.1 source1 source

The inscription says he died in the service of King Juan “in the battle of Troncoso” on Tuesday 29 May 1385. Arnaut then checked the calendar and found a snag: 29 May 1385 was a Monday, and the Tuesday was the 30th. One of the two is a slip, and no one can say which. Trancoso and the Fundação Batalha de Aljubarrota use 29 May.3 sources3 sources

João I was still at Guimarães when the news arrived. Told that Pacheco had brought the lords together, he said: “I knew good João Fernandes would do that.” Juan I, by both chronicles, was besieging Elvas on the Alentejo border. Lopes says he had stayed there 25 days in all, longer than he had been told the hungry town could hold out, and on hearing of the defeat he gave up his plan of invading from that side and went north to Ciudad Rodrigo.2 sources2 sources

The losses weighed on Castile. When Juan's council debated the invasion, some advisers argued that most of the captains who knew how to run a war had died in the plague outside Lisbon in 1384, at Trancoso or in other setbacks, a good three thousand men by their count, and that those left were young men who had never seen a battle. The Fundação reads the episode as a gain of time for João I, who could gather his army instead of facing two Castilian attacks at once.2 sources2 sources

On 8 July Juan I invaded by Almeida and marched by Trancoso and Celorico towards Coimbra and Leiria. On the way, Lopes says, citing a writer he calls Doctor Christoforus, he ordered churches burned, especially São Marcos, “where the battle of Trancoso was”. Excavations at the site in 2005 found the position and plan of that first chapel.3 sources3 sources

João I summoned the victors of Trancoso to join him. Lopes reckoned they could have brought at least 400 lances and 2,000 foot. Coutinho, Martim Vasques and Gil Vasques sent excuses for more than a month. Lopes believed they expected Castile to win and thought they would bargain better from their castles; Martim Vasques told Juan's envoy at Guarda that whoever God gave the verdict to would have Guarda and every other place.2 sources2 sources

Only Pacheco and Egas Coelho came, with 60 lances and 100 foot. Pacheco, his father had promised the king, would not fail him, and he reportedly rode 20 leagues through a day and a night, outpacing his own men, to reach the field as the armies were drawn up. Aljubarrota was fought on 14 August 1385, 77 days after Trancoso, and secured João I's crown.2 sources2 sources

Trancoso was a fight between local lords defending their own lands, and it did not decide the war. It did show again, after Atoleiros, that a Portuguese force with fewer and less well-equipped men-at-arms could beat the Castilians by standing on the defensive, in a formation much like the one used later at Aljubarrota. The news travelled through the whole kingdom weeks after the Cortes of Coimbra had made João I king.2 sources2 sources

The town has kept the memory. Trancoso's municipal holiday falls on 29 May and commemorates the battle, which locals also call the Battle of São Marcos. The town's official history lists Coutinho, alcaide of Trancoso and second marshal of Portugal, among its famous sons, and records that João I had Trancoso's walls rebuilt and confirmed its privileges on 12 January 1391.2 sources2 sources

The battlefield was about to be built on and crossed by a new road when, in 2003, the Portuguese Army proposed it for protection. In 2004 the heritage institute IPPAR approved it as a national monument, with the whole field a non-building zone, a decision the culture minister endorsed that October, according to the municipality.1 source1 source