Battle of Nájera

Battle context

The Battle of Nájera, fought northeast of Nájera in the province of La Rioja, was a direct engagement of the Castilian Civil War between King Peter of Castile and his half-brother Henry of Trastámara, who contested the Castilian throne. The battle drew in major external powers because Castile's naval strength — described as far superior to that of France or England — made control of the Castilian fleet a strategic prize for both kingdoms, entangling the civil war with the wider Hundred Years' War. Peter's force, numbering approximately 10,000, faced Henry's army of around 4,500, with Peter supported by a coalition that included Edward the Black Prince, John of Gaunt, and John Chandos, while Henry's side fielded Bertrand du Guesclin alongside Castilian commanders. The engagement thus concentrated leading military figures of the mid-fourteenth century on a single Castilian battlefield, reflecting the degree to which the succession dispute had become a theater of Anglo-French competition.