HENRY II. OF TRASTAMARA king (1369) of Castile, eldest son of Alphonso XI. and his mistress, Leonora de Guzman. His father endowed him with great lord ships in northern Spain, and made him count of Trastamara. After the accession of Alphonso's legitimate son, Peter the Cruel, Henry fled (1356) to France. In 1366 he persuaded the mercenary soldiers paid off by the kings of England and France to join him on an expedition to drive out Peter. The expedition was successful, but the Black Prince intervened on behalf of Peter and defeated Henry at Najera (April 3, 1367). Henry fled to Aragon, returned with French soldiers of fortune under du Guesclin, besieged Peter in Montiel (La Mancha), tempted him out and killed him on March 23, 1369. Through his ten years' reign Henry remained a strong ally of the French king in his wars with the English, who supported the claims of Peter's natural daughters. To support his own, he made vast grants and concessions to nobles and cities, hence his title El de las Mercedes he of the largesse.