Chapter 4 - Part II
In the next months Juan signed peace with all Spain’s allies except for Portugal and all of them paid a nifty sum of ducats which Juan and his allies split up among them.
So, about 20 000 French sieging Aragon, 30 000 French sieging Madrid, Four provinces occupied, the war seemed to be going well for Juan no doubt. There also seemed like those 10 000 that sieged Pamplona were the only soldiers the Spanish army had in Iberia and Portugal seemed to be doing nothing. Also Juan had got letters from Savoy, Brittany and the pope saying that each one of them now was going to send soldiers to the war. Papal ships were already starting to load soldiers for amphibious assaults at Sardinia, Sicily and the Baleares.
In Pamplona, 3000 cavalries were recruited as Juan had said and sent to the siege of Barcelona and the army with the artillery, led by Esparza, got orders from Aná to go back where they came from and siege what was possible, Leon or Galicia could have been abandoned by the defenders or if not, he waits until they are.
Barcelona fell in August 1505 and now Juan went to Aragon, taking command of the siege there, to Foix’s utterly bitterness. But what could he do, Juan had higher rank than him, those were the rules. Though, the French king wasn’t going to care about rules, he was sure and the risk was that Foix had an execution to look forward to when he comes home to Paris. He had only captured one province; the nasty little Basque king had taken the others.
The war continued like this, Juan stealing sieges and Esparza totally ruining every Spanish fortress with his artillery. When Madrid was captured, Juan went there to discuss peace.
- Fernando, I suppose you know why this war was brought upon you. Didn’t you learn anything when we totally invaded France? Didn’t you see how the Basque forces were and are practically invincible?
- I don’t know what you’re talking about Juan. You are a traitor. I did the most of the work against the French frogs and yet you betray me and your alliance. You would have been nothing without me
- You insulted my daughter and my family and now your whole country is entirely occupied, and Portugal too is going to fall. Now I want Barcelona and Valencia and a land connection to the two cities. The goldmine in Toledo and som northern coastal provinces would also be nice, and Picardie back to my French allies.
- That’s unacceptable! You are taking half of my country from me!
- What if we drop one northern coastal province?
- Nope
- Two coastal provinces?
- No
- Come on Fernando, OK, you get to keep all your coastal provinces
- I still reject
- Fine, then I’ll crush your little country till you pray for peace
- Ha! I have the Canary Islands, you will never get there
Juan sighed and left the room. Fernando was a harder nut to crack than he thought, it almost seemed like the Spanish king was totally insane.
The summer of 1506 the people in the countries involved started to get tired of the war, especially the people in Gascogne, who finally got an excuse to rise against Juan once again. Also the Spanish were furious at their king for not accepting the in their eyes pretty generous peace offer. So in November, Juan went to Madrid again
- This is my last offer for peace Fernando. I demand three provinces; Barcelona, Valencia and Gerona, Gerona only to get land access to the two others. May you burn in hell if you don’t accept it.
Fernando smiled.
- Sure Juan, but I want something too. I want the pope to recognize the newly discovered continents of the west, the so-called Americas, as Spanish and Portuguese territory.
- That is between you and the pope. Do you accept or do you not?
- I accept
In November 1506 the treaty of Madrid was signed and a month after the pope agreed with Fernando, his wife and the Portuguese king how the new continents were going to be split up, a treaty that was later going to be called the Treaty of Tordesillas
