Born in 1384 in the small Cuenca village of Torralba, Villena was the grandson of the Marquis of Villena and Constable of Castile, Alfonso de Aragón y Foix (1332-1412). His grandfather’s friendship with the powerful Henry, Count of Trastámara, granted the arrival of this Aragonese house in the kingdom of Castile in the middle of the 14th c. After 1369, when the former Count became Henry II, King of Castile, he offered his comrade a family alliance with the marriage of his illegitimate daughter, Juana de Castilla to Pedro de Aragón, Alfonso’s legitimate son and heir, also known as Pedro de Villena. The marriage would have strengthened the position of this family in Castile but, when Enrique was barely a year old, his father Pedro died fighting in the battle of
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Citation: Perea Rodríguez, Óscar. "Enrique de Villena". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 May 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13642, accessed 21 November 2024.]
