Manuel of Castile (1234 – 25 December 1283, The first Lord of Villena and Peñafiel, Cuéllar, and Escalona, was an Infante, son of Ferdinand III of Castile and his wife Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen.

Born in Carrión de los Condes, the name Manuel was given to him to commemorate his maternal grandmother's roots in Imperial Byzantium.

He was granted the Seigneury of Villena in 1252, created for him to govern that lordship as "apanage" (a medieval micro-state that would return to the central crown if the minor lineage ends with no successor).

This lordship would grow by receiving the cities around the Vinalopó River (Elda valley, Aspe, Crevillente, Elche).

Manuel travelled to Italy in 1259 as part of the embassy sent by his father to Pope Alexander IV.