Alfonso XI of Castile

Alfonso XI (1311–1350), called the Avenger, was king of Castile and León. Born at Salamanca to Ferdinand IV, he inherited the throne as an infant in 1312, while regents and nobles divided a kingdom the Moors raided. The Vega disaster of 1319 killed two regents; the last, his grandmother María de Molina, died in 1321.

Declared of age at the Cortes of Valladolid in 1325, he set about breaking the nobles; in 1326 he lured Juan the One-eyed to Toro and had him killed. His victory over the Marinid invasion at Río Salado in 1340 and the conquest of Algeciras in 1344 carried Castile to the Strait of Gibraltar.

He neglected Maria of Portugal for Eleanor of Guzmán, who bore him ten children, including the future Henry II. He died of plague besieging Gibraltar in 1350, and Granada's Yusuf I spared his funeral procession. His son Peter succeeded him.