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a
~Menendez Pidal, Historia de Espana, XIV, 19-26; O'Callaghan, Medieval Spain, pp. 420, 423.
s°
Men6ndez Pidal, Historia de Espana, XIV, 27-28, 30-34, 36, 47, 54, 57, 59; O'Callaghan, Medieval Spain, pp.
422, 424; Mollat, Popes at Avignon, p. 275; P. E. Russell, The English Intervention in Spain and Portugal in the Time
of Edward III and Richard II (Oxford, 1955), pp. 14, 55.
and a son) were legitimized 51
In April 1362 Pedro murdered the rival king of Moorish Granada with his own hands, and in June invaded
Aragon and made a treaty of alliance with England as a counterweight to French support for his enemies Pedro
IV of
Aragon and Henry of Trastamara. Edward the Black Prince, now governing Aquitaine, was eager for new
military glory and found satisfaction in upholding a legitimate king against a bastard challenger regardless of
the king's moral character. Facing the best general in Europe, Henry of Trastamara sought to balance the odds
by hiring mercenaries. 52
Ferocious bands of these mercenaries, now introduced to Spain, had been ravaging France and Italy for
five years, at one point severely threatening Pope Innocent VI in Avignon, adding greatly to the suffering from
the wars being almost constantly fought among the official rulers and noblemen of those three lands.
Scandinavia was likewise stricken by a war between Denmark and Sweden, in which the Danes ravaged the
prosperous Swedish island of Gotland 53 Repeated attempts by Pope Innocent VI and his legates to make peace
had been almost entirely fruitless everywhere. He had vacillated in his support of Cardinal Albornoz in the
Papal state by removing him as legate and vicar there in 1357, though restoring him in 1358, whereupon he
secured Bologna, the largest city in the papal state which had remained outside papal rule. a But in 1361 the
tyrant Bernabd Visconti of Milan had hurled an incredible defiance at the Vicar of Christ: when his legates
came to Milan to read the Pope's decree of excommunication of Bernabo, the tyrant forced them literally to eat
it, and when the Archbishop protested, Bernabo screamed at him "that here in his own land he was Pope,
emperor and God himself, for here God could do nothing without [his] permission."" The great historic Lateran
church and palace burned down that same year. In Rome, St. Bridget of Sweden was hurling condemnation
upon the Pope's head for his use of the Inquisition against the "Spiritual Franciscans."sb And Innocent VI had
made no move to return to Rome despite the remarkable success of Cardinal Albornoz in re-establishing the
dominion and security of the papal state.
The access of unexpected strength which had come to Innocent VI the year after his election as Pope by a
College of Cardinals sworn to restrict papal
Menendez Pidal, Historia de Espana, XIV, 69, 73, 76; O'Callaghan, Medieval Spain, pp. 422-423; Russell,
English Intervention in Spain, pp. 1-2,25-26,173. s2Menendez Pidal, Historia de Espana, XIV, 76, 78, 80; Russell,
English Intervention in SAain, pp. 3-4,27; Barber, Edward, Prince of Wales and Aquitaine, pp. 175, 186. Mollat, Popes
at Avignon, p. 50; Franklin D. Scott, Sweden: the Nation's History (Minneapolis, 1977), pp. 74-75.
sa
Mollat, Popes atAvignon, pp. 137-142; Beneyto Perez, Albornoz, pp. 213-217, 221222.
ss
sigrid Undset, Catherine of Siena (New York, 1954), p. 137. s6Jorgensen, St. Catherine of Siena, p.
159; Mollat, Popes at Avignon, p. 46.