Enrique Pérez de Guzmán, 2nd Count of Niebla

Enrique Pérez de Guzmán y de Castilla, 2nd Count of Niebla (in full, Spanish: Enrique Pérez de Guzmán y de Castilla, segundo conde de Niebla, señor de Sanlúcar de Barrameda) (20 February 1391 – 31 August 1436)^[1][2] was a Spanish nobleman and military figure of the Reconquista. He drowned while attempting the Seventh Siege of Gibraltar.

Biography

He was the son of Juan Alonso de Guzmán and of Beatriz de Castilla y Ponce de León, Lady of Niebla (died 1409), an illegitimate daughter of Henry II of Castile and of Beatriz Ponce de León.

On 4 March 1405 he married Teresa Suárez de Figueroa y Orozco, Lady of Escamilla and Santa Olalla, daughter of Lorenzo Suarez de Figueroa, Master of the Military Order of Santiago, and of Maria de Orozco.

In 1418, he bought the Lordship of the Canary Islands from its conquerer Jean de Béthencourt.^[3]

In 1430, he transferred ownership of the Canary islands of El Hierro, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote to Hernan Peraza the Elder, who had the rights to the remaining, not yet conquered islands. This move helped Peraza to unify all islands the Lordship of the Canary Islands and strengthen the Peraza family's footing during the islands' conquest.^[4]

The count drowned while besieging Gibraltar on 31 August 1436. This was the Seventh Siege of Gibraltar then the isthmus was under the control of the Spanish Moors.