Note 36 — Chapter III · THE HISTORY OF CASTILE TO THE DEATH OF PEDRO THE CRUEL

[He did not escape without being the victim of an attempt at poisoning which ruined his health. He returned, as Burked says, “with the loss of his soldiers, of his money, and of his health, befooled and cheated in one of the worst causes in which English blood and English treasure had been squandered on the continent of Europe.” Burke, who also calls Pedro “one of the greatest blackguards that ever sat upon a throne,” notes that to the last it was two Englishmen who defended him.]