Don Pedro de Ayala also Pedro López Ayala (died 31 January 1513) was a 16th-century Spanish diplomat employed by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile at the courts of James IV of Scotland and Henry VII of England. His mission to Scotland was concerned with the King's marriage and the international crisis caused by the pretender Perkin Warbeck. In his later career he supported Catherine of Aragon in England but was involved in a decade of rivalry with the resident Spanish ambassador in London. Ayala was a Papal prothonotary, Archdeacon of London, and Bishop of the Canary Islands.
Sources in English reveal little of Ayala's background, however he was from the noble family of the Counts of Fuensalida in Toledo. He was the son of Pedro Lopez de Ayala, Commendator of Mora and Treze, and Doña Leonor de Ayala. His contemporary, the historian Polydore Vergil, who may have known him in England, remarks that he was clever, but no scholar.
Mission to Portugal
In November 1493, Don Pedro de Ayala and Don Garcí Lopez de Carbajal were sent in embassy to King John II of Portugal. Their mission concerned the line of demarcation between Spanish and Portuguese maritime exploration. The issue now particularly concerned Ferdinand and Isabella as sponsors of Christopher Columbus, and the Spanish ambassadors offered to put the matter in the Pope's hands as arbitrator.
King John II was displeased by the embassy and the news of Columbus's latest voyage. He is said to have shown the Spanish ambassadors the strength of his cavalry, as if to intimidate them, and later mocked Don Pedro for his limp, and Don Garcia for his frivolous character. A second negotiation by Portuguese commissioners in Spain in March 1494 was more successful and brought about a new settlement for the rivalry in exploration with the Treaty of Tordesillas.
Mission to Scotland
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Spanish diplomacy before Don Pedro
Before Pedro de Ayala arrived in Scotland, James IV had received several brief Spanish embassies. In 1489, Don Martin de Torre got a formal reception at Linlithgow Palace, including a play performed by Patrick Johnson's fellows. Martin's servants presented a sword and a dagger to James and he gave them gloves containing gold coins. Martin then departed to England with the Scottish Snawdoun Herald. He returned two years later in July 1491 bringing a troop of Spanish dancers who performed on Edinburgh's Royal Mile outside the Lord Treasurer's house. Once again, Martin came to Scotland with a colleague Garcia de Herrara in September 1495. Unfortunately, their confidential instructions concerning Ferdinand and Isabella's lukewarm position on a Spanish marriage for James IV arrived first, and James read them. Despite this poor start, they stayed through the winter, and attended Perkin Warbeck's wedding to Lady Catherine Gordon. The Spanish ambassadors obtained a Latin copy of a love letter believed to be Perkin Warbeck's proposal to Lady Catherine Gordon.
James sent Don Martin and Garcia back to Spain with two Scottish ambassadors, two fine hackney horses, five large swift dogs for hunting wild boar, and a goshawk said to be able to catch cranes and buzzards. There was already a veteran ambassador in London, Dr Rodrigo Gonzalez (or Gundisalvi) de Puebla, who had worked on the Treaty of Woking in 1490. This alliance between Spain and England was a ratification of the Treaty of Medina del Campo, to be sealed by the marriage of Catherine of Aragon to Arthur, Prince of Wales.
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The Spanish resident
This pattern of brief visits changed in June or July 1496, when James IV was flattered to entertain Don Pedro de Ayala as a resident Spanish ambassador at his court, and he paid some of Ayala's expenses. James reserved a house in Edinburgh for the Spanish embassy, paying £40 for a year's rent and damages. The house stood at the head of Niddry's Wynd on the south side of the Royal Mile, known as 'the late Walter Bertrame's House,' now the site of South Bridge.