Editing Ferdinand IV of Castile (section)

==Personal rule (1301–1312)==
[[File:Bonifatius VIII Grabstatue.JPG|thumb|right|Relief depicting [[Pope Boniface VIII]], who legitimized in 1301 the marriage of Sancho IV of Castile with María de Molina, parents of Ferdinand IV.]]
In November 1301, when the court was in the city of [[Burgos]], was made public the bull by which [[Pope Boniface VIII]] legitimized the marriage of María de Molina  with the late King Sancho IV, and therefore her children were legitimate from that moment. At the same time, Ferdinand IV attained his legal majority, who was officially declared on 6 December 1301.{{Sfn|González Mínguez|1998|pp=1076–1077}} With this, John of Castile and the ''Infantes de la Cerda'' lost one of their main arguments when reclaiming the throne, not being able to use the illegitimacy of the Castilian monarch. In addition was also received the papal dispensation for the marriage of Fernando IV with Constance of Portugal.

Henry of Castile, annoyed by the legitimation of Ferdinand IV by Pope Boniface VIII, allied himself with Juan Núñez II de Lara, in order to indispose and antagonize Ferdinand IV with his mother the Dowager Queen. Both were joined by John of Castile, who continued to claim the [[Lordship of Biscay]] on behalf of his wife, María I Díaz de Haro.

In 1301, while the Dowager Queen was in [[Vitoria-Gasteiz|Vitoria]] with Henry of Castile answering the complaints presented by the [[Kingdom of Navarre]] in relation to the Castilian attacks to their lands, John of Castile and Juan Núñez II de Lara indisposed the King with his mother and sought his amusement in the lands of [[León, Spain|León]] by means of hunting, to which Ferdinand IV showed his predilection since childhood. With the Dowager Queen in Vitoria, the Aragonese nobles revolted against their monarch offered their support to obtain from James II the return to Castile of the towns from which he had taken over in the Kingdom of Murcia. That same year Henry of Castile, allied with Diego López V de Haro, demanded to Ferdinand IV, in compensation to leave his position of royal guardian (and after having previously blackmailed the Dowager Queen with declaring the war to his son if they didn't accede to his request), the possession of the towns of [[Atienza]] and [[San Esteban de Gormaz]], which were granted by the King.

On 23 January 1302 Ferdinand IV married in [[Valladolid]] with [[Constance of Portugal|Constance]], daughter of King Denis of Portugal. In the ''Cortes'' de Medina del Campo of May 1302, Henry and John of Castile and Juan Núñez II de Lara tried to indispose the King with his mother, accusing her of having given away the jewels given to her by Sancho IV, and later, when the accusation was proved to be false, they accused her of having appropriated the subsidies granted to the Crown in the ''Cortes'' of previous years, an accusation that was also proved false when Nuño, Abbot of [[Santander, Spain|Santander]] and Chancellor of the Dowager Queen, reviewed and made public the accounts of María de Molina, who not only had not appropriated the Crown's funds but contributed with her own income to the support of the monarchy. While celebrating the ''Cortes'' of Medina del Campo in 1302, which was attended by a representation of the King of Castile, Sultan [[Muhammed II al-Faqih]] of Granada died and was succeeded by his son, [[Muhammed III, Sultan of Granada|Muhammad III]], who attacked the Kingdoms of Castilla y León and conquered the municipality of Bedmar.

In July 1302 Ferdinand IV went to the ''Cortes'' de Burgos along with his mother, with whom he had restored good relations, and with Henry of Castile. The King, although under the influence of his private Samuel de Belorado, of Jewish origin —who tried to indispose the King from his mother— had decided to dispense from the presence of the John of Castile and Juan Núñez II de Lara in the ''Cortes''. At the end of the ''Cortes'', Ferdinand IV went to the city of [[Palencia]], where was celebrated the marriage of Alfonso of Valencia (son of John of Castile) with Teresa Núñez de Lara (sister of Juan Núñez II de Lara).

At that time was accentuated the rivalry existed between Henry of Castile, María de Molina and Diego López V de Haro on one side, and John of Castile and Juan Núñez II de Lara on the other side. Henry of Castile threatened the Dowager Queen with declaring the war to Ferdinand IV and herself if his demands were accepted, while the magnates sought to eliminate the influence that María de Molina exerted on her son, of whom the people began to distrust, because of the influence of the ''ricoshombres'' had over him. In the final months of 1302, the Dowager Queen, who was in [[Valladolid]], was forced to appease the ''ricoshombres'' and members of the nobility, who planned to rise up in arms against Ferdinand IV, who spent the Christmas of 1302 in lands of the Kingdom of León, accompanied by the John of Castile and Juan Núñez II de Lara.

At the beginning of 1303 there was a planned meeting between King Denis of Portugal and Ferdinand IV, where the Castilian monarch hoped that his cousin and father-in-law the Portuguese monarch would return to him some territory. For his part, Henry of Castile, Diego López V de Haro and the Dowager Queen presented their excuses for not attending the meeting. María de Molina's purpose in refusing to attend was to watch over Henry of Castile and the Lord of Biscay, whose relations with Ferdinand IV were strained because of the friendship showed by the monarch to John of Castile and Juan Núñez II de Lara. In May 1303 the meeting between Denis of Portugal and Ferdinand IV took place in the city of [[Badajoz]]. The infant John of Castile and Juan Núñez II de Lara predisposed Fernando IV against Henry of Castile and Diego López V de Haro, while the concessions offered by the Portuguese sovereign, who offered to help him if necessary against Henry of Castile, disappointed Ferdinand IV.