Minority of King Alfonso XI of Castile (1312-1313)
When John, Lord of Valencia de Campos and Juan Núñez II de Lara learned of the death of King Ferdinand IV, they asked Queen María de Molina (who was in Valladolid) to take the regency on behalf of her one-year-old grandson Alfonso XI, in order to avoid that Peter of Castile, Lord of Cameros took it. However, the Queen refused to assume the regency and asked both of them to talk of it with her son Peter.
Juan Núñez II de Lara then tried to kidnap the infant King, who was in the city of Ávila. However, the local authorities stopped him on orders from María de Molina. Shortly after, Peter, Lord of Cameros arrived at Ávila, but his entrance into the city was refused. In the meanwhile, John, Lord of Valencia de Campos and Juan Núñez II de Lara, who were in Burgos, called the ricoshombres and other main authorities of the kingdom to be reunited in Sahagún, at the same time that Peter, Lord of Cameros obtained the consent of María de Molina to be the guardian of his nephew Alfonso XI during his minority. When John, Lord of Valencia de Campos (who was at Sahagún with the authorities of the kingdom) knew about the closeness of Peter, Lord of Cameros, he offended him in front of various witnesses, causing the Lord of Cameros to march against him. The Lord of Valencia de Campos and his collaborators sent Philip of Castile, Lord of Cabrera and Ribera, brother of Peter, to talk to him; however, the Lord of Cameros reprimanded his brother for taking the side of the Lord of Valencia de Campos. The Lord of Cabrera and Ribera presented to his mother María de Molina the propositions of the Lord of Valencia de Campos, which consisted of a triumvirate between María de Molina and the Lords of Cameros and Valencia de Campos. The Queen agreed with this idea.
Pedro, Lord of Cameros went to the Cortes of Palencia of 1313 accompanied by an army of 12,000 men, after having recruited in Asturias and Cantabria, and had gone to the Cortes without desire for a fight, but ready for one if the other side wished it. On the side of the Lord of Cameros militated his uncle Alfonso Téllez de Molina (brother of María de Molina), his son Tello Alfonso de Meneses, Rodrigo Álvarez de Asturias and Fernán Ruiz de Saldaña, among other ricoshombres. The main supporters of the Lord of Valencia de Campos were Philip, Lord of Cabrera and Ribera, Fernando de la Cerda and Juan Núñez II de Lara.
Once assembled in the city of Palencia, it was agreed that each of the two sides would keep only 1,300 men in the vicinity of the city, although the agreement was broken by the Lord of Valencia de Campos, who kept next to him 4,000 men, to which the Lord of Cameros responded by keeping 5,000 of his men at his side. During the Cortes, the Dowager Queen Constance stopped supporting the Lord of Cameros and began to support the Lord of Valencia de Campos, proceeding Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena (grandson of Ferdinand III of Castile) in the same way. Fearing that disputes would arise, at the initiative of Queen María de Molina, the Lords of Cameros and Valencia de Campos and their companions left the city and stayed in nearby villages. Peter stayed in Amusco, John in Becerril de Campos, Queen Constance in Grijota, and María de Molina in Monzón de Campos. At the same time, the prelates and procurators who supported the Lord of Cameros and María de Molina agreed to meet in the church of San Francisco at Palencia, of the Order of the Franciscans, while the supporters of the Lord of Valencia de Campos reunited in the convent of San Pablo of Palencia, of the Order of the Dominicans, linked to the House of Lara. Despite the wishes of Peter and his mother, the supporters of the Lord of Valencia de Campos didn't agree to any compromise and appointed him guardian of the King, while the other side appointed as guardians the Lord of Cameros and Queen María de Molina.
The double Cortes of Palencia of 1313 gave origin to two different orders: one of them granted by the Lord of Valencia de Campos, as tutor of Alfonso XI, to the councils of Castile, León, Extremadura, Galicia and Asturias —territories in which predominated his own supporters—; and the other promulgated by Queen María de Molina and her son, the Lord of Cameros, as joint tutors of Alfonso XI, and delivered at the request of the councils of Castile, León, Toledo, Extremadura, Galicia, Asturias and Andalusia. Both charters note the presence of the clergy, the nobility and the notorious men of the towns, and it was deduced from them that the Lord of Valencia de Campos had a certain advantage in the number and quality of his allies, as well as the Lord of Cameros and Queen María de Molina in prelates, masters of the Military Orders and representatives of the councils. The charter given by Queen María de Molina carried the seals of Alfonso XI and those of both tutors, and the one given by the Lord of Valencia de Campos only his own seal; this could mean that the Royal Chancellery was in the hands of the first. Finished the Cortes, each of the two sides began to use the royal seal to issue orders and privileges.
Finished the Cortes of Palencia of 1313, Alfonso of Valencia and his father John of Castile occupied the city of León, while Peter seized the city of Palencia and went later to Ávila with his mother, where Alfonso XI was. In the meanwhile, both sides tried to reach a definitive agreement on who should be the guardian of the infant King, intervening in the negotiations the Masters of the Orders of Santiago and Calatrava, as well as Don Juan Manuel, supporter of John of Castile. The Lord of Cameros departed for Granada to help Nasr, Sultan of Granada, against whom the son of the arráez of Málaga had revolted. However, at the end of 1313 Peter was informed of the defeat of the Granadian sultan and, during his return to Castile, besieged for three days and took the castle of Rute, located in Córdoba. At the end of 1313, the Lord of Valencia de Campos summoned the procurators of the Kingdom in Sahagún.
