Enrique (Henry), Infante of Castile, called El Senador (March 1230-August 1304) was a younger son of St. Fernando III, King of Castile by his first wife, Elizabeth (Beatriz) of Swabia.

After his father's death in 1252, Enrique (Henry) and his brother Fadrique (Frederick) rebelled against the rule of their elder brother, King Alfonso. He also schemed with his stepmother, Jeanne of Ponthieu , who was accused of being his mistress. The rebellion failed in October 1255, when Alfonso crushed their forces at Moròn . Fadrique was imprisoned, and later secretly murdered. Enrique attempted to make an alliance with Aragon by disguising himself as a servant and proposing to King Jaime's daughter. This plan fell apart, and he escaped to France, where his cousin King Louis IX of France refused to have anything to do with him. Enrique sought refuge with his stepmother Jeanne in Ponthieu; she may have suggested he visit his sister Eleanor, who was married to Edward, the son and heir of King Henry III of England.

Enrique arrived at the English court in August 1256. He lived comfortably there for three years entirely on King Henry's good graces until diplomatic relations with Castile eroded and Henry had to ask him to leave. Leaving for Africa, Enrique became a mercenary in Morocco until he made his way to Italy, where he joined Charles of Anjou's campaign to become King of Sicily. It was here that Enrique earned his title of El Senador when Charles had him made Senator of Rome. But Enrique turned traitor in 1268 when his cousin Conradin invaded Italy. Conradin's army was defeated and he was beheaded; Enrique was left to languish in prison in Naples. In 1272, his half-sister Eleanor and her husband King Edward I of England came to Sicily on return from the Crusades. Eleanor's attempts to get him released from prison were unsuccessful, but she kept in touch with him until her own death.

Both Eleanor and Charles were dead before Enrique was finally released in 1298. He returned to Castile, where he was appointed Regent for his grandnephew, King Fernando IV. He married a lady of the Lara family, but had no known children before his death in 1304.

Sources

• Ballesteros Beretta, Antonio. Sevilla en el siglo XIII
• Parsons, John Carmi. Eleanor of Castile: Queen and Society in Thirteenth Century England