Manuel de Villena

The Manuel de Villena were a noble house of Castilian royal blood, descended from Infante Manuel, son of Ferdinand III. Don Juan Manuel was born at Escalona in 1282 and inherited Villena and Peñafiel. Among the richest men in Castile, he could strike his own coinage.

His feud with Alfonso XI, whose young queen was Juan Manuel's daughter Constanza, brought intermittent revolt in the 1320s and 1330s. They reconciled in 1340, and he fought beside the king at Río Salado and the siege of Algeciras. He was also a prose writer, known for Count Lucanor, finished around 1335.

His daughter Juana Manuel married Henry of Trastámara and became queen of Castile as the wife of Henry II; Constanza married Peter I of Portugal. The house kept its titles and military employments for centuries after Juan Manuel's death in 1348.