however, remained confi dent of the king’s support and
relied heavily on the backing of others who associated
the crown’s interests with their-own, namely the lower
and middle layers of society. Luna brilliantly exploited
the concerns and aspirations of the non-noble sectors of
society and, at the same time, sought to increase his own
infl uence as well as centralize the power of the monar-
chy. As a result, he undermined the power of the cortes
(parliament) and the local municipalities, as he gathered
more and more power for the crown and for himself.
The king, who remained largely disinterested in affairs
of state, became a virtual pawn of the ambitious Luna.
In 1420 Luna, who had been elevated to count and
been given large estates, rescued the king from the In-
fantes de Aragón, who had seized the monarch and taken
him to Talavera de la Reina. The Infantes, brothers of Al-
fonso V of Aragón, were closely allied with the Castilian
nobles who sought to curb the power of the monarchy
in the kingdom. Both had regal ambitions themselves
and looked to protect their family’s enormous interests
in Castile. Luna was made the constable of Castile in
1423, a step which greatly increased his power and infl u-
ence by making them offi cial. The move provoked the
nobles and the Infantes to multiply their efforts against
him, which met with success in 1427, when they and the
other nobles forced the king to exile Luna. Neither the
king nor the nobles, however, were capable of govern-
ing Castile without Luna, whose talents had ensured his
indispensability. As a result, he was quickly recalled and
fully reinstated. The Castilian victory in the war against
Aragón (1429) not only restored but amplifi ed Luna’s
power and infl uence.
Luna seemed unstoppable. At one point, the mastery
of the military Order of Santiago was conferred upon
him after it had been stripped from the Infante Enrique,
heir to the throne. With this new power in hand, Luna
began to campaign against the Muslim south and led
the Castilians to an important victory at the battle of La
Higueruela in 1431. The nobles, presided over by the
Manrique and Enríquez clans, continued to resist Luna
and plot against him at court. Although their efforts led
to a second exile in 1438, by 1445 Luna had been re-
stored to favor and had handed the nobles a resounding
defeat at the battle of Olmedo. Only King Juan’s second
wife, Isabel of Portugal, managed to rid the kingdom of
Luna. With the collaboration of the nobles, especially
the conde de Haro and the marqués de Santillana, she
persuaded the king to arrest Luna and condemn him to
death. He was taken prisoner at Easter, 1453, and publi-
cally beheaded at Valladolid on 22 June of that year.
As he went to his death, Luna, whose bravery was
legendary, calmly requested that his executioner not tie
his hands with the customary rope but with the silk cord
he had brought for that purpose. Luna’s spectacular rise
and dramatic fall would continue to haunt the Castilian
imagination for the next several centuries as an example
of the whims of Fortune, inspiring many literary works
that commemorated it. He is buried in the cathedral at
Toledo. Juan II died the year after Luna’s execution,
overcome by personal grief and remorse.
Álvaro de Luna’s diplomatic and military skills rank
him among the most infl uential Iberian political leaders
of the fi fteenth century. Committed to a powerful mon-
archy and centralized authority based on broad popular
support, his vision was only betrayed by an indecisive
king and his own venality.
See also Alfonso V, King of Aragón,
The MagnanimousFurther Reading
Round, N. G. The Greatest Man Uncrowned: A Study of the Fall
of Don Alvaro de Luna. London, 1986.
E. Michael GerliLYDGATE, JOHN (ca. 1370–1449)
The most prolifi c versifi er of the 15th century. Lydgate
was probably born in the village of Lydgate in Suffolk
and apparently educated at the Benedictine monastery
at Bury St. Edmunds, at which he was professed at the
age of fi fteen. He later studied at Oxford, probably at
Gloucester Hall. He was ordained priest in the Bene-
dictine order in 1397. In 1406 Prince Henry supported
his return to study at Oxford. It was possibly while at
Oxford that he wrote his translation of Aesop’s Fables.
His subsequent career suggests that he enjoyed Henry
V’s patronage. In 1423, after Henry’s death, Lydgate
became prior of Hatfi eld Broadoak in Essex. But from
1426 to 1429 he was in Paris as part of the entourage
of John duke of Bedford, regent of France. By 1433 he
had returned to Bury. Most of his later works seem to
have been written there. He received a royal annuity in
1439 and died ten years later.
Lydgate’s earliest major work was probably his Troy
Book, a translation of Guido delle Colonne’s Historia de-
struccionis Troiae (30,117 lines in couplets), which was
begun at the behest of Henry V in 1412 and completed in- Its composition appears to have been interrupted
by the writing of The Life of Our Lady, ca. 1415–16
(5,932 lines, mostly in rime royal stanzas), written, he
says, at Henry’s “excitacioun.” The Siege of Thebes, a
history of the Theban legend, apparently based on a
French source, was probably composed ca. 1420–21,
as a continuation of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. While
in France in the late 1420s Lydgate probably wrote his
translation of Deguileville’s Pilgrimage of the Life of
Man (24,832 lines in couplets) for Thomas Montacute,
earl of Salisbury. Some of his shorter poems, including
the Danse Machabre, also date from this time.
LYDGATE, JOHN