England in Castile, c. 1479

A Map of the British Isles of 1521

This woodcut by Laurent Fries (1521) is from Hans Grüninger's second edition of Claudii Ptolemaei Geographicae enarrationis (1525). It is one of the 29 new tables with which the first edition of 1477 was completed and updated. The map shows the geography of the British Isles as it could be known to the early generations of college students.

With their coastal line enhanced by shading, Scotland, Ireland, and England (and the regions with which they keep their geographical boundaries) are surrounded by a graduated frame indicating latitude and longitude. The main rivers, mountains and cities (represented by circles) have Latin place-names, following the medieval cartographical fashion. London and the River Thames can be found in the interior, along with the hills dividing Scotland and England, but the majority of towns identified are located along the southern and eastern coasts of the islands, as these were better known to European sailors and merchants.

Such 'modern' additions contrast with the representation of the mythical island of 'Hy Brazil' off the southwest of Ireland, a remnant of early fourteenth-century chart maps which stayed on even after the real Brazil was first reached by Europeans in 1500.

Diego de Valera's Crónica de Hyspaña, a product of the Isabella the Catholic's patronage of chronicle writing, was first edited in Seville in 1482 by Juan Cromberger. It compiles a geographical introduction, a summary of the ancient history of Spain and a compendium of that of Castile up to Juan II's reign.

There are several mentions to England in De Valera'a chronicle. He had travelled there in the service of Juan II and appears to have read Geoffrey of Monmouth. In folio 92r he reports on the Duke of Lancaster (Alencastre), John of Gaunt, landing at Coruna in July 1386, with wife, daughter, and seven thousand men.

Husband to Pedro I's daughter and self-proclaimed king of Castile and Leon, John of Gaunt had come to dispute the throne to Juan I of Castile. He established his court in Ourense for the winter and in the spring of 1387, joined by the King of Portugal, advanced successfully across the south-west of Leon. This was until, in De Valera's narrative, their men were halted by an outbreak of 'gran pestilencia'.

As a result of the failure of the Anglo-Portuguese campaign against Castile and the loss of support in Galicia, the Duke of Lancaster and Juan I sat to negotiate an agreement. Their  talks resulted in the Treaty of Bayonne of 8 July 1388, by which the Duke and his wife renounced their Spanish inheritance rights in favour of the marriage of their daughter Catherine to Juan I's firstborn, the future Enrique III. It is in this way that Catherine of Lancaster became the first Princess of Asturias in history.

One outstanding feature of her rule in Castile, both during her consort queenship (1390-1406) and regency (1406-1418), is that she never relinquished responsibility. It has been shown how Catherine intervened in political decisions and strengthened political and commercial relations with Portugal and England, albeit to the detriment of interests and the living conditions of the mudéjar and Jewish minorities.

See her portrait in this woodcut, among the courtiers of her son King Juan II. Catherine of Lancaster died in Valladolid in 1418, but her offspring would reign in Spain for centuries, as Queen Isabella I was her granddaughter.