Note 33 — GOMES EANNES DE AZURARA; (continued 6)
C. Raymond (Charles Raymond) Beazley translation
(p. 19). Alfarrobeira, where ... Don Pedro was ... defeated.—D. Pedro, the eldest of the uncrowned sons of King John I, was famous for his journeys in Europe, ending in 1428, when he returned from Venice with many treasures, among others a MS. copy of Marco Polo, and a map of the traveller's route (see Introduction to vol. ii, p. liv). He was still more famous for his wise government of Portugal as Regent for his young nephew, Affonso V, 1439-47. He took part in the campaign of Ceuta, 1415; advised vainly against the Tangier campaign of 1437; married his daughter Isabel to the King in 1447 (May); was worried into a semblance of rebellion, 1448-9, and was killed in a battle at the rivulet of Alfarrobeira, between Aljubarrota and Lisbon, in May 1449.
On his companion, the Count of Avranches ("Dabranxes" in Azurara), Santarem has a note remarking that he, D. Alvaro Vaz d'Almada, was [made a Count (of Avranches) in Normandy, by gift of the King of England (Henry V), after the battle of Azincourt, when he was also created a knight of the Order of the Garter.]
He was sometimes called, in the affected Renaissance fashion of the time, the "Spanish Hercules;" but he also had fallen into disfavour with Affonso V. He escaped from imprisonment at Cintra, joined D. Pedro in Coimbra (the latter's dukedom), and marched with him to his death (see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xvi-xviii).