Episode of the reign of Henry III of Castile, the Sorrowful, when the day after he had to pawn his coat to eat, he corrected the pride and excesses of the lords and rich men of Castile
1866. Oil on canvas.On display elsewhere
Henry III ‘the Sorrowful’ (Burgos, 1379 - Toledo, 1406) was King of Castile and León between 1390 and 1406. Under the false pretext of dictating his will, he brought together the Castilian nobility in order to condemn their profligate behaviour and abuse of power, which had ruined the kingdom and the Crown.
In the Catalogue of the 1867 National Exhibition of Fine Arts, the scene is described in the following passage: ‘All of you, you are the kings causing grave harm to the kingdom, to our detriment and affront; but I will ensure that the reign does not last long and that the mockery you make of us comes to an end. He additionally calls the ministers of justice aloud along with the instruments required, and six hundred soldiers whom he had secretly notified and prepared. Those present were astonished, the one from Toledo, as a person of great heart, kneeling on the ground and with tears asked the King for forgiveness for what he had done wrong, and the others did the same following his example: they offered to make amends, their persons and property as his will and his mercy’ (Historia General de España, Padre Juan de Mariana).Díez, José Luis (dir.), Pintura del Siglo XIX en el Museo del Prado: catálogo general, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2015, p.189
