Twisted walls

In December 1251 Gaston Moncada de Béarn warned Henry III of the imminent invasion of Gascony. Other Gascon nobles, he claimed, were about to join forces against the English with the kings of Castile and Navarre and Alphonse of Poitiers, Count of Poitou and Toulouse and brother to King Louis of France.

Alfonso X of Castile

The conquest of Gascony was predicted by the Genoese poet, Bonifacio Calvo, hired to sing the praises of Alfonso X of Castile:

“They will see him [Alfonso] without delay, riding straight towards with such strength that he cannot find his equal on the field, and will see him attack so bravely and knock down twisted walls, burn and destroy likewise so that he causes them, obedient, to come to his mercy.”

Bonifacio Calvo

Gaston also warned Henry that any of these rulers could defend the customary rights of Gascon nobles from the injustices - “iniuriis et dampnis” - committed by Simon de Montfort in his term as seneschal of Gascony. A few months later Gaston revealed his true colours when he joined Alfonso’s coalition.

Alfonso’s father, Ferdinand III, had died in May 1272: ironically, halfway through Montfort’s trial in England for the mismanagement of Gascony. Ferdinand gave his successor a bit of straightforward advice:

“If you manage to hold all that I leave you, you are as good a king as I; and if you should enlarge it, you are better than I; and if you should lose any of it, you are not as good as I.”

Gaston saw the Castilian invasion of Gascony as an opportunity to rule as Alfonso’s v viceroy. A year after Montfort was hooked back to England to explain himself, Gaston raised his banner and went on the rampage. Other bands of Gascon rebels seized the towns of La Réole and Saint Émilion, and the commune of Bordeaux informed King Henry that the duchy could only be saved by strong and immediate action.