Alfonso XI of Castile

Lovely spring comes with a new book! – my May newsletter

Today is the 1st of May. Here in Sweden, the cherry trees stand in flower, and the magnolia buds are just about to burst into short-lived flowering. I love magnolias. So does my little grandson, but only because magnolias have been around since the dinosaurs. He hasn’t quite grasped that “his” magnolia is not as

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Constanza Manuel – a pawn to her daddy’s ambitions

Constanza Manuel was born a pawn. That’s what happens when your mother is an Aragonese princess and your father, Juan Manuel, is a scion of the House of Ivrea, the ruling dynasty in Castile. Don Juan Manuel was the nephew of Alfonso X and the much younger cousin of Sancho IV. From his father, Infante

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