As further on we shall speak of the war and the deep quarrel that was later to arise between Count Enrique and his brother, King Pedro, we need to relate first how this dissension began and how the count came to leave the kingdom. This must be done before we go on to talk about the war between Castile and the King of Aragon, to whose aid the count was later to go.

It is important you should know that, when King Alfonso [XI] died in the siege of Gibraltar in March 1350, after which his elder son, Prince Pedro, who was in Seville at the time, had been proclaimed king at the age of fifteen years and seven months, many of the nobles and great lords who were there with the king left the encampment, bearing his body, so that he could be laid to rest in Castile. Amongst these were Prince Ferran, the son of the King of Aragon, and Marquis of Tortosa, who was the nephew of the aforementioned King Alfonso, being the son of his sister, Queen Leonor; Don Enrique, Count of Trastámara; his brother, Don Fadrique, Master of Santiago (both of them being sons of Leonor Núñez and King Alfonso); Dom João Afonso de Albuquerque; as well as a number of other great lords, masters of Orders, and members of the nobility.

Just as the body of the king was approaching the town of Medina Sidonia, which belonged to Leonor Núñez, she entered the town, because Alfonso Fernández Coronel, who had been governing it in her name, told her he no longer wished to do so. As Leonor Núñez made her entry, there was much rumour amongst the great lords and knights bearing the king's body, as they feared she was taking residence there to lend support to her sons and relatives who were with her.

When Dom João Afonso de Albuquerque saw that Doña Leonor's sons and relatives were making a stop in this well-fortified town along with her, he arranged with some of the others that Count Enrique and Don Fadrique, his brother, be held in the town as prisoners. Leonor Núñez found this out and was very frightened.