Alfonso Fernández de Palencia (1423–1492) was a Castilian royal secretary, historian, and humanist scholar.
After nearly ten years in Italy, Palencia returned to Castile and joined the household of the Archbishop of Seville, Alonso I de Fonseca.
[1] On 6 December 1456 Palencia succeeded Juan de Mena as royal chronicler and secretary to Enrique IV of Castile.
Palencia visited Rome on behalf of these nobles to complain to Pope Paul II about Enrique's actions.
In the 1480s Isabel appointed Fernando del Pulgar as her royal chronicler and Palencia was effectively stripped of political influence.
The first three decades were translated into Spanish by Paz y Meliá and published under the title of Crónica de Enrique IV between 1904 and 1908.
Sanchez Alonso writes that "few match Palencia's ability to give life to a character, in presenting the antecedents to an event briefly and efficiently, in sagaciously explaining it and in putting interest in the narration".