Chapter I

Tricio, the child

It is noticeable that 1418 is coming to

an end because it is the coldest Christmas
Eve old people can remember in Sestao.
The temperature is 14º Fahrenheit, and
further, to top everything, the drought
goes on hitting and punishing Biscay. Not
a drop of water has fallen since April and
the summer harvest was scarce, but, in
spite of this, the Lord of Biscay requires
the local peasants more food to feed his soldiers who are fighting against
the Moor in the south of the Iberian Peninsula or the other Christian
kingdoms that are involved in appalling disputes trying to get the control
of the whole territory, making people’s lives even worse. Thus, the Iberian
Peninsula is divided into several parts: the Kingdom of Portugal is reigned
by John I and occupies most of the west; the Caliphate of Granada
stretches across the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula and is ruled by
Muhammad VIII who inherited it after the death of his father Yusuf III; the
northern part is ruled by the King of Navarre Charles III, of the Évreux
dynasty, who has been fighting against the King of Aragón Alfonso V the
Magnanimous for years; the rest of the Peninsula is in the hands of the
King of Castile John II.

In the middle of this tug-of-war, a family is setting the table to

worship our Lord Jesus Christ on this holy night. The statues of the Virgin
Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus that Manuel made with a chunk of clay years
ago stand on another table that is beside the fireplace. They are very lucky
to be able to delight the typical local dish the humble people of Sestao eat
at Christmas because elver-fishing along the banks of the Nervión River
has been abundant and Soledad has cooked a whole casserole of elvers or
glass eels, as they are called by the locals, seasoned with chopped garlic
and fried with some pork fat, rounding off the meal with chestnuts, nuts,

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mushrooms and a cake that Soledad, who is about to deliver, has
especially baked for her children, but they know they must ration the little
flour and food they have after giving the Lord of Salazar and Muñatones
and the Prevost their shares. Consequently, this Christmas, the family will
not be able to taste a piece of lamb, rabbit or chicken because they want
to sell such animals at Portugalete’s market to try to make ends meet.

Soledad is clearing the table. Manuel is fanning the flames and

throwing more wood into the fireplace to fight back the cold. Suddenly,
Soledad begins to have contractions. Manuel responds rapidly and sends
his two elder sons, Aniceto and Eustaquio, to get some help from the
blacksmith’s wife and daughters. Both boys run as fast as they can up the
hill and in no time, Manuel’s sons, short of breath, are back with
Hermenegildo’s wife and daughters.

Soledad thinks the baby is going to be a boy because old wives say
that a pointed or round belly means a boy and given this scenario she has
chosen a name for him. And the ‘connoisseurs’ hit the jack, which pleases
Manuel who thinks: –another boy to lend me a hand with the Lord of
Salazar and Muñatones’ manor.

The property Manuel refers to is located on the West Bank of

the Nervión River that acts as a natural border with the Kingdom of
Navarre. This humble family consists of Manuel, Soledad, and a bunch of
sons and daughters: Aniceto, Eustaquio, Petra, Ramona, José and Rodolfo,
and now the youngest, Tricio.

The village of Sestao was a key point in the defense of this vast tract
of land that is situated along the West Bank of the Nervión River because
this enclave was topped by Mount Sexto chapel, which later on was
turned into the church of Santa Maria de la Anunciación, from which any
unusual activity that occurred within the Abra Estuary and/or the marshes
of the Galindo River could be observed. Such hermitages and fortifications
had direct visual contact with one another and were strategically located
along this legendary river to warn people to take shelter within the walls

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of the City of Portugalete, which was founded by Maria Diaz de Haro (La
Buena) in 1322, by means of torches at night, if the weather was fine, or
by blowing horns whenever foreign troops and/or soldiers belonging to
the enemy House of Oñaz raided this area.

Sestao is a member town of Merindad of Encartaciones that is made

up of the following villages and towns: Abanto, Alonsotegi, Artzentales,
Balmaseda, Galdames, Gordexola, Gueñes, Karrantza, Lanestosa, Muskiz,
Ortuella, Portugalete, El Valle de Trápaga, Santurtzi, Barakaldo, Sestao,
Sopuerta, Trutzios, Zalla and Zierbena. As revenge passed from father to
the firstborn, the aforementioned municipalities were involved in the
fights that went on for decades across the Lordship of Biscay between the
House of Gamboa and the House of Oñaz, disturbing ordinary people’s
everyday activities and encouraging young people to turn into bandits,
hence the name Encartaciones, which stems from the word "Encartado",
‘a person wanted by justice’. Consequently, the "Good Men" of this region
formed a government and implemented the so-called "Current Usage and
Customs", which consists of 45 rules that were drafted in 1394 and
approved by Magistrate González Moro and the Catholic Monarchs in
1473 and 1476 respectively. This charter was reformed in 1503 by
Magistrate Francisco Pérez Vargas and included in the Charter of
Idoibaizaga (Gernika).

It is Tricio's fifth birthday and the family is about to have dinner in

the small farmhouse that his father, brothers and sisters have built in
Benedicta forest with the stones they have brought with great effort from
Simondrogas with the help of their donkey "Cagón". There is not much to
eat because last summer’s harvest has not been good enough due to a
beetle that devastates whatever stands in its way, besides, the papas
harvest has been lousy, so they must ration the existing food and try to
fish something in the Bay of Benedicta, mostly muffins, which fried with
some salt and bacon are delicious. They thank God because the drought
ended two years ago and the pastures have enough grass to feed the
cattle, but they must beware of rustlers.
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 Soledad is happy because her family can have two meals a day. The
night is freezing and the next day they have to go to church to hear mass
and she knows the path leading them to St Maria’s will be frozen in the
morning. Fortunately, the fire burns, since wood is not scarce along the
banks of the Nervión River because there is always a piece of wood to be
chopped. Outside it is black pitch and the family is ready to sleep on their
cots around the fire. The children ask Manuel to tell them a story from the
past. Manuel is about to begin his tale when suddenly someone knocks on
the door. Tas, who is sitting next to Tricio by the fire, starts barking.
Manuel stands up and picks up a sickle
before asking: –Who is it?

A familiar voice answers: –It’s me,

Hermenegildo, the blascksmith.

Manuel unbars the door and in the

fireplace light he makes out the face of
his friend. Soledad offers him a jug of
txakoli that Manuel makes every fall with
the grapes he picks from the front vine
of his farmhouse, but Hermenegildo,
despite he is thirsty and never says no to
a nice glass of txakoli, kindly declines Soledad’s offer because he knows
Manuel keeps it for special occasions, but Manuel insists: –come on guy,
drink a jug, you must be frozen.

Hermenegildo takes a sip of txakoli and warms up in front of the

fire, rubs his hands, sits down and eats some roasted chestnuts that
Soledad has placed on the table, when he asks Manuel and Soledad: –have
you heard the latest news about the adventures of grandpa Lope García de
Salazar and Lord Ochoa de Muñatones and Salazar’s son?

Soledad, giving him puppy dog eyes, answers: -To tell you the truth,
we have been very busy around here cleaning the Lord's fields and we
haven't gone up to the village yet.

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 Hermenegildo, eager to tell the gossip in town, continues: -Don't
worry, I'll keep you posted before I drink this jug of txakoli. This afternoon,
when I was at the Tower of Sexto shoeing some horses I heard some
minstrels who have come to the village say that Lope García de Salazar Jr.
has lots of bastard children scattered all over the Kingdom of Castile and
the Lordship of Biscay, too, (he actually had more than two hundred
children) and they also said that his grandfather Lope García de Salazar
(Iron Arms), the Son of Ochoa de Salazar, has died.

Manuel interrupted him to ask: –the one who went to Toledo to

fight the Moor?

Hermenegildo nodded and went on with his story: –Yeah, the one
who went to Toledo with his grandpa and soldiers to reinforce King Alfonso
XI of Castile’s army (The Avenger), the one who was involved in the Battle
of Toledo against the Moor, which ended in a real carnage. Well, the
minstrels also added that to stop such bloodshed the Caliph proposed the
King of Castile a duel between two soldiers from both kingdoms. The King
of Spain agreed and ask his soldiers to volunteer to fight the infidel, but
nobody stepped forward, so Lope Garcia de Salazar (grandfather) took up
the gauntlet and asked the King of Castile to grant him such an honor,
saying that he would fight any moor who dares to confront him. On the
day of the duel, a huge, hefty moor turned up frightening all the Christian
soldiers, but our Lord’s grandfather, who was also very burly and tall, was
determined to fight the giant, knowing that it was going to be a vicious
duel. Both men started fighting so strongly that the blows of their swords
could be heard in the distance. After ten minutes of moving around, trying
to knock down each other, both adversaries were really exhausted and
there was a whiff of death in the air. Then, the Moorish soldier lowered his
guard and took his eyes off our Lord’s Grandfather for a second, it was
then when Lope cut through the moor's guts, causing him a big hole in his
belly through which his bowels spilled out. In great pain he lay on the
ground at the mercy of our Lord Lope García de Salazar who beheaded his
opponent by grabbing him by the hair. In that state of ecstasy and cheered
by the Christian soldiers, he raised and showed the moor’s head to the

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 Christian troops who went mad. Then, our Lord
approached both kings to show them the giant’s head
covered with blood. The troubadours also told the locals
that that giant was wearing a pendant with his coat of
arms he had brought from Africa, consisting of thirteen
yellow stars on a red background. Lope Garcia de Salazar holding that
pendant in his left hand asked the King of Castile to grant him the honor to
take the moor’s coat of arms as his to remember that victorious day.
Obviously, the king consented, and that’s why he has changed his coat of
arms. The king has also nicknamed him "Iron Arms" and has asked all the
minstrels and troubadours to sing throughout the Kingdom of Castile the
following poem:
“On a red background,
I saw thirteen golden stars,
and a tireless giant who
came from Africa with such stars and
was determined to die for his King,
and in Toledo, in the presence of the King of Castile,
Lope García de
Salazar killed him, giving his supporters
a great victory.”
(Blasón General, Coria, 1489)

The boys that were sitting by the fireplace were engrossed in what
Hermenegildo was saying, they did not even blink, but Tricio was not only
listening to him but dreaming he would become a knight himself one day
to experience and emulate such dangerous exploits carried out by the
various Lords of Salazar with nicknames such as “Iron Arms”, “The Wise
Man”, “The Brave”, “The Moor”, “The Friar”, …. and half asleep he also
saw himself on a white horse fighting the Moors and the House of Oñaz or
chasing bandits through Encartaciones, arriving at distant and inhospitable
places such as Karrantza or Lanestosa where those outlaws held up
stagecoaches or shipments of wool and wheat that came from Castile

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heading for the port of Portugalete where they were loaded on the galleys
that sailed to countries whose names were difficult to pronounce.

Hermenegildo finished his story and after an exhausting day of work

at the forge making swords and shoeing horses he went home a little
warmer after eating Soledad's chestnuts and drinking four jugs of txakoli.

The next morning, the family was preparing to climb the

Tumbaperros hill that would lead them to Santa María Chapel to hear
mass. They started to climb it very carefully because it was so frozen that
even the oxen that tried to reach the top slipped. Before going to church,
some children cashed in on the icy fields to slide down on the rugs their
mothers make from hemp rope. As the family was approaching Salazar
Tower, they bumped into Joaquín –a neighbor whose land borders on
Manuel's– who angrily rebuked him: -your sheep are coming into my fields
over and over to eat my grass, and your dog has attacked my sheep and
killed two of them. If you don't do something about it, by my balls this is
going to end very badly.

Manuel pretended he did not hear anything and continued walking

towards the temple, but Joaquín, who was a powerful landowner and a
friend of the Lord of Salazar and the House of Muñatones, was not
completely satisfied and went after Manuel and grabbed him by his jacket
to try to hit him, starting both men a brawl, shaking each other and
shouting so loudly that a knight had to intervene to stop the fight.