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322ReviewsLa corónica 34.2, 2006 Letters, Orders and Musters of Bertrand du Guesclin - 1357-1380. Ed. MichaelJones. Woodbndge. UK: The Boydell Press. 2004. lui + 415 pp. ISBN 1-84383-088-4 While Bertrand du Guesclin is better known for his role as a French hero of the Hundred Years War. his impact on Iberian histoiT is far from negligible. After his 1364 defeat of an Anglo-Nav arrese invasion of Normandy, the obscure Breton captain was given the task of leading the marauding mercenary Companies out of France, ostensibly against the Moorish kingdom of Granada. The true task ofthe 'crusaders' was to depose Pedro I 'die Cruel' of Castile -guilty of various offenses against the French Crown and the Papacy- and replace him wirb his bastard half-brother Enrique de Trastámara, a long-time client of France. With the support of Peter IY of Aragón, the enterprise was at first stunningly successful: having celebrated Christmas 1365 in Barcelona, the expedition reached Burgos in time for Enrique to be crowned on Easter Day. In a first round oí mercedes eiiriqiieiias, the usurper ceded his former counrv of Trastámara to du Guesclin, and for good measure hailed him as king of Granada. Bv the end of May, Pedro, who had fled to Sevilla, was on the run again, first to Galicia, then to English Aquitaine, where he sought the help of Edward Prince of Wales. Pedro's restoration was secured bv the Black Prince's victory at Nájera in April 1367, where du Guesclin was taken prisoner. Freed the following ? ear after jiavment of an enormous ransom, the French captain rejoined Enrique at the siege of'Toledo. Pedro had alienated his English allies and was defeated at Montiel in May 1369. Having taken refuge in the ill-provisioned castle, he was tricked into surrendering and, in the ensuing scuffle, was stabbed to death by Enrique. Du Guesclin, whose complicity in the king's entrapment and murder is more than likeIv, was further rewarded with the dukedom of Molina and the lordship of Soria. He had also been granted several fiefs bv Peter IY of Aragón, with whom he had complicated and sometimes antagonistic relations. While Peter sought to employ the Breton captain against the Sardinian rebels, jiossession of Molina was a contentious issue between them. Du Guesclin's Spanish career came to an end when war resumed between France and England. Named Constable by Charles Y. he reluctantly returned to France in 1370. ProfessorJones brings together for the first time all the known archival documents relating to du Guesclin -including several previously unknown pieces- as well as bibliographic references and summaries of rehired rexts. Of the 944 entries collected from a variety of public and private archives La corónica 34.2 (Spring, 2006): 322-23 Reviews323 and libraries, as well as some previously published sources, more than half pertain understandably to the tenure of du Guesclin as Constable, but about 200 are directly relared to the Iberian phase of his career. These provide the necessary corrective to the usually biased or self-serving chronicles which have been until now the principal sources for narratives of du Guesclin's peninsular engagements. They also offer, with the details ofthe often tangled bargains stnick between the Breton captain and his Spanish employers, a significant contribution to the study of political and military relations among die Iberian kingdoms and their foreign neighbors. Richard Vernier, Emeritus Wayne State University' ...

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