Pedro López de Ayala

Pedro López de Ayala (1332–1407), born at Vitoria, was a statesman and chronicler of Castile. He served Pedro I, then defected to Henry of Trastámara and fought at Nájera in 1367, where the Black Prince captured him. In 1378 he negotiated a French alliance.

Captured by Portugal at Aljubarrota in 1385, in his iron prison he wrote a falconry treatise and part of his satirical Rimado de Palacio. Ransomed around 1388, he resumed diplomacy in France, became grand chancellor under Henry III and chronicled four Castilian kings. He died at Calahorra in 1407.