PETER

born Aug. 30, 1334, Burgos, Castile died March 23, 1369, Montiel, Fr. byname Peter The Cruel, or The Just, Spanish Pedro El Cruel, or El Justiciero celebrated king of Castile and Leon from 1350 to 1369, charged by his contemporary enemies with monstrous cruelty but viewed by later writers as a strong executor of justice. He succeeded his father, Alfonso XI, at the age of 15, and John II of France saw the chance to force Castile into a military alliance against England. The alliance was concluded (1352), and Peter was forced to marry (1353) Blanche, daughter of Pierre, duc de Bourbon, though he was already passionately in love with the beautiful Mara de Padilla-who was to remain his mistress, and perhaps his legal wife, until her death (1361). He abandoned Blanche immediately after the marriage. This act ruptured the Franco-Castilian alliance. At home Peter was at once confronted by a row of bastard half brothers, led by Henry of Trastmara (later Henry II), who, to win support for his undefined ambitions, proclaimed himself defender of the magnates' privileges against the growing power of the crown. After leading several revolts which Peter crushed with energy, Henry, who failed to win any popular sympathy, escaped to France (1356) and offered to serve the French crown against his brother. From 1356 to 1366 Peter was engaged in a bitter war with Aragon, whose king, Peter IV, supported Henry's cause. During the war Peter won many successes against Aragon while Trastamaran propaganda failed to undermine Castilian loyalty toward him. In 1365, therefore, the French king Charles V, Pope Urban V, and Peter IV-to save Aragon from being overrun-paid veteran French mercenaries, led by Bertrand du Guesclin, to go to Spain and overthrow Peter, replacing him by Henry. Peter fled to Gascony and requested English help under the Anglo-Castilian alliance, concluded on June 22, 1362. The Trastamarans and their French allies were routed at Njera (April 3, 1367) by Edward the Black Prince, and Peter resumed his reign. Charles V sent Henry back to Spain with more French troops and a long civil war ensued. Eventually Peter was defeated at Montiel and assassinated there by his brother's own hand. died 1219? also called Peter of Courtenay, French Pierre de Courtenay briefly Latin emperor of Constantinople from 1217 to 1219. The son of Peter of Courtenay (d. 1183) and a grandson of the French king Louis VI, he obtained the counties of Auxerre and Tonnerre by his first marriage. He later married Yolande (d. 1219), sister of Baldwin I and Henry of Flanders, first and second Latin emperors of Constantinople; she brought him the marquessate of Nevers. Chosen successor to Henry of Flanders when Henry died without sons in 1216, Peter was consecrated emperor in the Church of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura, Rome, by Pope Honorius III on April 9, 1217. Accompanied by an army and a papal legate, he subsequently embarked at Brindisi on ships furnished by the Venetians, for whom he tried to conquer Durazzo from Theodore Ducas, Greek despot of Epirus. Failing in that enterprise, Peter set out overland toward Thessalonica. In the mountains near Elbasan he was taken by Theodore and died, probably by assassination, after an imprisonment of at least two years. born , Volhynia, Grand Duchy of Lithuania died Dec. 20, 1326, Moscow Russian Orthodox metropolitan of Kiev and Moscow (1308-26) and the first metropolitan to reside in Moscow. Until Peter's tenure as metropolitan, the centre of the Russian Orthodox Church had for many years been in Kiev, the ancient capital of Rus, and then for a while in Vladimir. When Peter became metropolitan, he, like his predecessors, lived in no fixed place but rather travelled throughout Russia to promote unity among rival principalities. His allegiance leaned toward Moscow and its prince, Ivan, whom he believed capable of liberating Russia from Mongol oppression. Ivan began to turn his obscure principality into a religious centre by building a cathedral to the archangel Michael and, following Peter's suggestion, a cathedral dedicated to the Assumption. Under Ivan's and Peter's influence, Moscow became the religious capital of Russia; and its position as the permanent home of the metropolitan was strengthened by Peter's direction that he be buried in the Cathedral of the Assumption there.