Beatriz Enríquez de Castilla y Castro

• Beatriz de Castro
• * c. 1400+ 03.04.1455
• Parents
• Father: Pedro Enriquez de Castilla, conde de Trastamara * 1355
• Mother: D. Isabel de Castro * c. 1360
• Marriage I:
• Diego Lopez de Avalos * c. 1380
• Marriage II:
• Pedro Alvarez Osorio, 4. conde de Lemos * c. 1410
• Children
• Children from Marriage II:
• •Alonso de Castro Osorio * 1442 [married] Leonor Pimentel y Quiñones
• •Isabel de Castro Osorio [married] Pedro Pardo de Cela

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Beatriz Enríquez de Castilla , also known as Beatriz de Castro , (1398-1455), daughter of Pedro Enríquez de Castilla , Count of Trastámara , and Isabel de Castro , was Lady of Lemos , Ponferrada , Villafranca del Bierzo , Castro Caldelas , Puentedeume and other towns, and Lady consort of Cabrera and Ribera . She was a great-granddaughter of King Alfonso XI of Castile .

Family origins
She was the daughter of Pedro Enriquez of Castile and Isabel de Castro y Ponce de Leon, and on her father's side she was the granddaughter of Fadrique Alfonso de Castile , Master of the Order of Santiago , and Constanza de Angulo. On her mother's side she was the granddaughter of Alvar Perez de Castro , Count of Arraiolos , and Maria Ponce de Leon. She was the sister of Fadrique Enriquez of Castile and the aunt of Pedro Enriquez , Bishop of Mondoñedo between 1426 and 1445.

Biography
Childhood and youth (1398-1429)
Beatriz Enríquez de Castilla was born in 1398. Her father, Pedro Enríquez de Castilla, was Count of Trastámara, Lemos, Sarria and Viana del Bollo , and Lord of Ponferrada , Villafranca de Valcárcel , Paredes de Nava and other towns, and also held the positions of Constable of Castile and Chief Warden of Santiago .

Although there are multiple versions on the matter, some authors point out that when she was about eight years old, Beatriz Enríquez was entrusted by her brother Fadrique to the abbesses of the convent of Santa Clara la Real de Toledo , Inés and Isabel Enríquez , who were illegitimate daughters of King Enrique II of Castile , to be "educated honestly and instructed" for a few days by the nuns of that monastery, although with the express condition that she would not pronounce her vows as a nun in said convent nor take the habit there, as stated in the petition that Fadrique Enríquez later addressed to Pope Martin V on this matter. 1

General view of the city of Toledo.
However, and due to the long absence of Duke Fadrique Enríquez, the nuns of the convent of Santa Clara de Toledo and the sisters Inés and Isabel Enríquez persuaded Beatriz to wear the habit of the Poor Clares, and in the end she, after many pleas and supplications on their part, agreed to their request, 1 and after having remained in the convent for more than two years, the nuns finally forced Beatriz to pronounce her vows after having kept her locked up against her will. However, Duke Fadrique opposed this and informed Pope Martin V that his sister wished to leave the convent, and requested that an investigation be carried out on what had happened, and the pontiff, by means of the bull Humilibus supplicum votis , issued in the city of Florence on October 2, 1419, ordered the dean of the cathedral of Segovia that when the veracity of what had been communicated to him on the matter had been verified, he should take Beatriz Enríquez under his protection so that she would leave the convent of Santa Clara and be taken to another cenoby of Poor Clare nuns or of another order. 2

The Pope also ordered that if it was true that Beatriz Enríquez had taken her vows against her will, she could renounce her habits and religious life and would be free to return to secular life and marry. 2 However, it should be noted that the historian María Luisa Pérez de Tudela stated in her doctoral thesis that at this time the convent of Santa Clara de Toledo was involved in two such affairs, since on the one hand there was the case of Beatriz, the sister of Duke Fadrique Enríquez, and on the other there was another young woman also called Beatriz who was the daughter of Pedro Enríquez, Count of Trastámara, and she pointed out that both were forced to take the habit against their will, although in another part of her thesis she stated that in reality the two young women called Beatriz were nieces of Duke Fadrique Enríquez and Count Pedro Enríquez. 3

However, other historians claimed that the case of the "confinement" of Beatriz Enríquez did not occur in Santa Clara de Toledo, but in the convent of Santa Clara de Valladolid , 2 and others pointed out that it took place in the monastery of Las Huelgas de Burgos , although Alfonso Franco Silva pointed out that there is evidence that Beatriz's confinement took place in the convent of Santa Clara la Real de Toledo. 4 On the other hand, some of the historians who linked this matter with the convent of Santa Clara in Valladolid wrongly claimed that Inés Enríquez, the illegitimate daughter of Enrique II, was not abbess of Santa Clara la Real in Toledo, but of Santa Clara in Valladolid, and also that it was Duke Fadrique Enríquez who, with the complicity of the abbess Inés Enríquez, forced his sister Beatriz to take the habit of the Poor Clares and remain in the convent for several years until one day "she stripped off her clothes in sight of the Abbess and nuns, and left the monastery helped by some relative", who according to the historian Eduardo Pardo de Guevara y Valdés must have been her uncle, the admiral of Castile Alfonso Enríquez . 5​ Alfonso Franco, on the other hand, also stated that Beatriz Enríquez's entry into the Poor Clares of Toledo occurred in 1424, when she was 17 years old, 4​ despite the fact that the bull of Pope Martin V in relation to the matter of Beatriz is dated October 1419, that is, about five years before what was stated by said author. 2

General view of the castle of Monforte de Lemos .
Beatriz's brother, Fadrique Enríquez, was a member of the party of Constable Álvaro de Luna , against the influence of the Infantes of Aragon in the Castilian Court of Juan II of Castile , which earned him the title of Duke of Arjona and member of the Royal Council in 1423. However, he changed sides in 1425 and began supporting the Infantes of Aragon against Álvaro de Luna, who in 1428 managed to regain control of the situation, eliminating the Infantes and their supporters from the political map.

On 10 June 1429, shortly before his arrest, his brother Fadrique Enríquez ceded the town of Monforte de Lemos and the castle of Castro Caldelas to his sister Beatriz Enríquez . Shortly afterwards, Fadrique Enríquez de Castilla was imprisoned in the castle of Peñafiel , where he died in 1430. According to some authors he was executed by order of John II of Castile, although others claim that he died of natural causes, 6 and after his death his estate was dispersed.

At the time of her brother's arrest, Beatriz Enríquez owned the towns of Monforte de Lemos, Cedeira and Castro Caldelas, as well as numerous fortresses spread throughout Galicia , the property she had inherited from her sister Constanza, and the encomiendas of the monastery of Meira and the churches of Mondoñedo and Lugo .

From the moment of her brother's death, Beatriz Enríquez tried to restore the former splendor of her family, reuniting again the dispersed patrimony of the same, which had been confiscated by the Crown and distributed among numerous nobles, among the latter being the Constable Álvaro de Luna, who seized the towns of Monforte de Lemos, Sarria and Paredes de Nava, among others. 7

In September 1429, shortly after the arrest of her brother Fadrique, Beatriz Enríquez asked King Juan II for her brother's pardon, although at the same time she asked the monarch to grant her all the property that had belonged to her brother and that had been confiscated by the Crown, among which was the Duchy of Arjona . However, this request was ignored.

Marriage and final years (1433-1455)
On 16 February 1433, Beatriz Enríquez married Pedro Álvarez Osorio , lord of Cabrera and Ribera . The marriage was carried out thanks to the influence of Admiral Alonso Enríquez, uncle of both spouses, and the deposit consisted of ten thousand Aragonese gold doubloons. The main objective of both spouses was to recover all the property that had belonged to Fadrique Enríquez de Castilla and in 1431, Juan II of Castile ordered that all the property and rights of his aunt, Beatriz Enríquez, be respected. In 1434 she recovered the town of Monforte de Lemos, in 1440, that of Ponferrada, and in 1445, that of Villafranca del Bierzo . On May 25, 1442, Juan II granted Pedro Álvarez Osorio and his wife the necessary license to found an estate, and a year later, in 1443, both spouses proceeded to found an estate in the person of their son Alonso Pérez Osorio, including in it all of their lordships. 8

In the following years, Beatriz Enríquez and her husband tried to get the monarch John II of Castile to grant them the county of Trastámara , which had belonged to Beatriz Enríquez's brother, although their hopes were frustrated when John II granted the lands that made up the county, although without the title of count, to Pedro Álvarez Osorio , lord of Villalobos and relative of Pedro Álvarez Osorio , Beatriz Enríquez's husband.

Beatriz Enríquez de Castilla died on April 3, 1455, according to what Luis de Salazar y Castro states in his work , although others disagree as to the date, but not as to the year, which everyone agrees is correct. 9

Grave
The body of Beatriz Enríquez de Castilla was buried in the convent of San Francisco in Villafranca del Bierzo , where her second husband and two of her children would later be buried. On the tomb, placed in the main chapel of the church, the following epitaph was placed: 10

HERE LIES DOÑA BEATRIZ, LADY OF VILLAFRANCA, PONFERRADA AND MONFORTE AND CALDELAS. SHE WAS MARRIED TO DON PEDRO OSORIO, COUNT OF LEMOS, LORD OF CABRERA AND RIBERA.
The tomb of Beatriz Enríquez de Castilla, now disappeared, was made of marble, and on it was placed the recumbent statue representing the deceased, who appeared with a rosary around her neck and a breviary in her hands.

Marriages and offspring
Beatriz Enríquez de Castilla was married for the first time to Diego López Dávalos, although they had no children.

Later, in 1433, she married Pedro Álvarez Osorio , lord of Cabrera and Ribera, and from her second marriage three children were born: 11

Alonso Pérez Osorio (d. 1467). He married Leonor Pimentel, daughter of Alonso Pimentel Enríquez, Count of Benavente . He was buried in the convent of San Francisco in Villafranca del Bierzo.
Isabel Pérez Osorio. She married Galaor Mosquera for the first time, and later Marshal Pedro Pardo de Cela , with whom she had two daughters.
Maria Perez Osorio (1446-1457). She was buried in the convent of San Francisco in Villafranca del Bierzo.

Doña Beatriz de Caftro, hermana y heredera de Don Fadrique de Caftilla y Caftro, Duque de Arjona, Señor de Ponferrada y Conde de Traftamara, cafó con Don Pedro Alvarez Oforio, Señor de Cabrera y Rivera, y fueron primeros Condes de Lemos por merced de Enrique IV. Tuvo el Conde en fu fegunda muger Doña Maria Bazan á Doña Juana, ó Beatriz Oforio, que heredó lo de Villafranca, Cabrera y Rivera, que oy anda en fus fuccefores los Marquefes de Villafranca; y el primogenito y unico que tuvo de fu primera muger Doña Beatriz, fue Don Alonfo de Caftro Oforio... Historia de la Muy Ilustre Casa de Sousa Capitulo XII. Condes de Lemos. Pág 173

Doña Beatriz de Caftro hija del Condeftable dõ Pedro fue Señora de lemos, Villafranca, y Ferrada. Cafò con Pero Alvarez Oforio Señor de Ribera y de Cabrera, y del el Coto de Balboa. Tuvo titulo de Conde de Lemos, como parece por el Previlegio de los Reyes Catholicos dado a Bivar de fus franquezas año de 1479 donde confirma don Pedro Oforio Conde de lemos, Señor de Cabrera. Tuvo hijo a don Alonfo de Caftro. NOBLEZA DEL ANDALVZIA Por Gonçalo Argote de Molina, Sevilla 1588. De la Svcession de Don Gutierre Fernandez de Caftro el Defcalabrado de quien decindio don Fadrique de Caftro Duque de Arjona. Cap. CI. Pág. 109