The Cardinal of Boulogne, who was in Aragon in order to reconcile these kings, saw how King Pedro had lost part of his army in the battle between Count Enrique and Don Fernando de Castro, and that some of his knights had left him to go to Aragon. He thought that for these reasons and others, he might wish to reach some kind of peace agreement with the King of Aragon. He sent word to both kings asking them if they would like to speak further about this, and both agreed to do so. The cardinal therefore came to Tudela in the kingdom of Navarre where he met Gutierre Fernández de Toledo, who was the King of Castile's proctor, and Bernat de Cabrera, the proctor of the King of Aragon. They spent several days there but failed to come to an agreement.

Learning about this failure, King Pedro left Seville for León when he was told that Count Enrique, Don Tello and some Aragonese lords were joining together to invade Castile. From there he left for Valladolid, knowing that these troops had already entered his kingdom, had killed the Jews of Nájera and other places, and were pillaging the Jewish quarters of these towns.

The count arrived at Pancorbo, staying there for some days, and afterwards left for Nájera. The king went there with his forces and camped in a place called Azofra. A cleric from Santo Domingo de la Calzada came to him there and told him that Saint Dominic had appeared to him in dreams telling him to tell the king to be sure that if he did not guard himself against Count Enrique, the latter would kill him with his own hand. The king believed that the cleric had been persuaded to say this by others, but though the cleric denied it, the king had him burnt in his very presence.

The king left on a Friday for Nájera where the count was to be found outside the town with 800 horsemen and 2,000 foot soldiers, having ordered his tent and a banner to be placed before the town on a hill. The king's vanguard fought the count and defeated him, taking the tent and banner and killing part of his army. The king left in the evening for Azofra where his camp lay.