The Chronica Latina Regum Castellae (“Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile”) can be considered one of a trio of major Latin works of Iberian history in the 13th century prior to the transition towards the vernacular, the other two being Rodrigo Ximénez de Rada’s Historia Gothica (“Gothic History”) and Lucas of Tuy’s Chronicon Mundi (“Chronicle of the World”). While the latter two works can be seen as ‘histories of Spain’ with Castilian and Leonese focuses respectively, the Chronica has a more specific focus on Castile and reads quite differently, though the work also contains accounts of events in other regions, including the Crusades in the Holy Land and conflict in Italy between the Papacy and the administration of the city of Rome.
The chronicle’s original content suggests that the author is not relying on either Rodrigo or Lucas and has his own sources, including contemporary testimony that had personally been relayed to him. However, like the other two authors’ works, the chronicle ends with Ferdinand III’s conquest of Cordoba in 1236 CE, although it appears that this ending was added to an earlier draft of the work. The starting point of the chronicle is the reign of Ferdinand Gundisalvus (“Fernán González”- d. 970 CE). The suggested author of the chronicle is Ferdinand III’s chancellor Juan de Soria. Regardless of whether the specific identification is correct, there is little doubt that the author was at least someone who occupied a senior position in Ferdinand III’s administration.
I would like to dedicate my translation of this chronicle to Murtaza Hussain, a journalist I have known for many years. Murtaza currently works at Dropsite News and has recently done some interesting reporting from Syria. In addition, he is an avid linguist and has a keen interest in medieval Iberian history, and while I may not agree with all his views on the matter, I always find his takes intriguing.
The edition of the Latin text I have used comes from Brepols’ Corpus Christianorum series.
A depiction of the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 CE, which is mentioned in the chronicle and was seen as a decisive Christian victory against the Almohads. On the left are depicted both Alfonso VIII of Castile and Toledo’s archbishop Rodrigo Ximénez de Rada. The painting is in the museum at Guadalajara (photo my own).
1.Count Ferdinand Gundisalvus was the first to rule the county of Castile after the destruction of the Christian people that took place in the Spanish lands in the time of the reign of Roderic, the king of the Goths.[i] After Ferdinand’s death, he was succeeded by his son Count García Ferdinand. García Ferdinand was in turn succeeded by Count Sancho, whose son, the infante[ii] García, was killed at León by some Leonese when García went to marry the daughter of the king or some count.
Mistress Mayor, who was left behind by García’s death and was the daughter of the aforementioned Count Sancho, was handed over in marriage to the King of Navarre and Najera: namely, Sancho, the grandson of Sancho Avarca. From this Mayor, King Sancho had two sons: namely, García and Ferdinand,[iii] who fought next to Atapuerca,[iv] where King García was killed. Then King Ferdinand had control of his own realm, the realm of his brother, and the realm of León by virtue of his wife whom he had married, as she was the daughter of King Bermudo of León.
2. After the death of King Ferdinand,[v] who had the nickname the Fat and liberated Coimbria from the hands of the Moors,[vi] he was succeeded in rule by his three sons: King Sancho in Castile; King Alfonso[vii] in León, Asturias and Galicia; and King García in Najera and Navarre. King Sancho, seemingly a strenuous and bellicose man, could not tolerate having a partner in his father’s realm: as the saying goes, “And all power does not or will not tolerate a partner.” And so Sancho captured his brother King García, who died not much later while being held in captivity by Sancho. He also deposed his brother King Alfonso, who, after being expelled, went to the king of the Moors who was ruling over Toledo at the time.[viii] But King Sancho believed that nothing had been done when something remained to be done, and so he besieged Zamora, which at the time was being held by his sister Urraca. Here, he was killed in an act of treachery by an evil attendant, as the rumour goes: his name being Vellidus Adolfez.
After Sancho died, the earlier mentioned king’s sister sent her messengers to her brother King Alfonso, who was staying in Toledo at that time. Once the king received the message, he immediately headed back, and through God’s arrangement, he obtained total control of his father’s kingdom. God inspired in him the sound plan to besiege Toledo, whose state of affairs he had come to know fully. For while he had been staying there, he had scrutinised the city’s internal and secret matters in a detailed way. So he prudently assailed the city for many years, devastating its standing crops and destroying all its fruit crops each year. Eventually, compelled by divine power, the Toledan Moors handed over their city to King Alfonso, honorifically receiving him as their lord and king. Alfonso added the stipulation that they would be allowed to remain in the city and keep hold of their homes and possessions, and that they should serve him as king. Once the very noble and well-fortified city of Toledo was captured, the king began to populate all the land called Extremadura. In doing so, he seized many forts and other villages beyond the Sierra from the hands of the Saracens, accomplishing this through the power of our lord Jesus Christ and by virtue of his being a wise and powerful man.
And so the king’s kingdom was expanded in various ways, but he did not have a son: for the only son he had, called Sancho, had been killed by the Saracens next to the village called Uclés.[ix] Therefore, the king began to consider and diligently inquire as to whom he could marry off his daughter called Urraca (whom he had begotten from his legitimate wife), while keeping his own honour intact. Since he could not find in the Spanish lands such a man who would be worthy to be the king’s son-in-law, he summoned a nobleman from the regions of Burgundy next to Araris (which is the river commonly called Saona). This nobleman was strenuous in use of arms, very well-renowned and well-endowed with good manners. His name was Count Raymond, and Alfonso married off his daughter Urraca to him. The aforementioned count did not live for a long time with his wife. From his wife, he begat a son called Alfonso,[x] who later ruled for a long time in the Spanish lands and was named Emperor. A certain relative of Count Raymond came with the latter. He was called Henry and he was also a count. On account of his love for his son-in-law, King Alfonso married off to him another daughter whom he had not had from a legitimate marriage. From her, the aforementioned Count Henry had a son: namely, King Alfonso of Portugal, who was the father of King Sancho, who was in turn the father of King Alfonso. Both Raymond and Henry died while struggling with the defect of black bile. While the aforementioned King Alfonso who had captured Toledo was still alive, his son-in-law Count Raymond died, and his son Alfonso (who later became Emperor) was still a rather tender boy at that time. This Alfonso was raised in Galicia.
3. After the death of King Alfonso who had captured Toledo, his daughter Queen Urraca succeeded him in rule. She subsequently administered the realm very badly. Indeed after the death of her father she married King Alfonso of Aragon,[xi] who was the son of King Sancho,[xii] who besieged Huesca and died while besieging it. Sancho was succeeded in rule by his son Peter,[xiii] who took responsibility for besieging the aforementioned town, which he captured by the grace of God after defeating the king of Zaragoza and overcoming a multitude of Saracens in war. This happened at Campo d’Alcorat next to Huesca. Since this King Peter had left no surviving offspring, he was succeeded in his father’s kingdom by this King Alfonso of Aragon, whom Queen Urraca married (as I have mentioned). But she despised him and abandoned him and went on to commit other acts that are unworthy of being reported.
4. So in that time King Alfonso of Aragon was touched with internal grief and thus entered Castile with a multitude of armed men, and brought many evils upon the kingdom of Castile. Indeed his men took control of many fortifications and very many forts in the kingdom of Castile, which the aforementioned Queen Urraca had already handed over to the king. Thus, great upheaval took place, together with a long-lasting war that brought great loss upon the entire kingdom of Castile. The Castilians came together with Count Gomicio (de Campo Spine), who was on intimate terms with the queen in a way that was inappropriate, and they fought against the aforementioned King Alfonso next to Sepeluega, where they were defeated by Alfonso and the count was killed. The queen received Count Peter de Lara (the father of Count Malric, Count Nunius and Count Álvaro) on excessively intimate terms, and from her he is said to have begotten a son called Ferdinand Furtado.
As for King Alfonso of Aragon, he was attacking the kingdom of Castile via his agents and in person, and he was wretchedly devastating the entire land, destitute as it was of a legitimate defender. Indeed the son of Queen Urraca and Count Raymond (namely, Alfonso), who was later called Emperor, had not yet reached the years of puberty, but was rather being raised in Galicia. Eventually, the Castilians entered into a plan with the Galicians and Leonese to oppose the King of Aragon, and they brought out Alfonso (the son of Queen Urraca) from Galicia once he had become a young man, and then they prepared to fight against the King of Aragon. The king saw this and realised that he did not have a just cause of war against the legitimate lord of the land, and thus he abandoned the kingdom of Castile and returned to his own land.
This King of Aragon was a bellicose and magnanimous man, who waged many battles and emerged victorious in them. He also brought many woes upon the Saracens. Eventually, he besieged a town called Fraga[xiv] that is next to Ilerda, where he is said to have been killed by the Moors. This did not happen because of the Saracens’ virtue, but rather because of their trickery and the permission of God, when a multitude of Saracens unexpectedly came out of the town after they had entered into it without the knowledge of the king and his army. Others believed that he had escaped from that misfortune whereas the majority of his army was wiped out by the enemy’s sword- the latter fact attested by the multitude of bones that can be seen even today by onlookers at a church in the aforementioned town of Fraga. Many years after the incident, the king was said to have come in our times to Aragon, where, as soon as he arrived, he was honorifically received by the nobles and King Alfonso (the son of Count Barcelona), as though he had been truly recognised by them through many hidden signs that he indicated to men of olden times to whom he had been known.
In the same period as the massacre next to Fraga, another man in Castile rose up. He falsely pretended to be King Sancho: the son of the Emperor and father of the very illustrious King Alfonso who is our lord. But both this Sancho and the old King Alfonso of Aragon came to the end of their lives through wretched deaths: the former in Castile, the latter in Aragon.
After the lamentable massacre next to Fraga and the death of the king (if he indeed died there at that time), the Aragonese were destitute of the comfort of a king and regime since their king had left no offspring, and so they dragged out a certain Ramiro[xv] from a monastery. This Ramiro was the king’s brother, a monk and a priest. As rumour reports, they compelled him to marry a wife- which he did. From this wife, he begat a daughter, whom the count of Barcelona subsequently married, and for this reason the county of Barcelona has been united with the kingdom of Aragon up to the present day. As for Ramiro, he returned to his monastery after begetting his daughter, as though he were unsuitable for the role of ruling the kingdom. That is enough for now.
5. Initially, the reign of King Alfonso (who was later called emperor and was the son of Count Raymond and Queen Urraca) was weak. But better fortune followed thanks to the support he had from divine grace, in Whose hand are the powers of all and all the rights of kingdoms. For a long period of time, he peacefully controlled all of Galicia, Asturias, the land of León, Castile and Extremadura and the Sierra beyond. He also brought many woes upon the Saracens: indeed, he captured Cordoba, Baecia, Andujar and Montor. He also obtained control of many other forts and towns in those regions. He also captured Almería. He was fortunate in gaining control, but less prudent in maintaining control. The land became quiet and gained rest in those days. His kingdom was enriched and expanded.
King García Ramiro of Navarre[xvi] was the son of the infante Ramiro, who was the son of the infante Sancho. The infante Sancho was the son of King García (who was killed next to Atapuerca) and had been born to a certain mistress. This King García Ramiro is said to have been the vassal of King when the latter obtained the crown of Empire and was named Emperor of the entire world. As for the Count of Barcelona whose sister Berengaria was married by the Emperor, he was a vassal of the Emperor, representing those localities that were established around the river Ebro in the realm of Aragon.
6. Around the time when the reign of the Emperor began, a certain Saracen called Ibn Tūmart rose up.[xvii] He arrived from the regions of the noble and famous city of Baghdad where he had studied for a long time, and preached in the Moroccan kingdom that was being controlled at that time by the Moors called Moabites in particular.[xviii] The Moabites are commonly called the Almoravids, and their king was ʿAlī.
So Ibn Tūmart preached in particular against the arrogance and oppression of the Moabites, who were cruelly oppressing the peoples subject to them, frequently exacting excessive tributes so that they could freely exercise the vice of their liberality (or rather, their extravagance) that they engaged in and boasted of. Ibn Tūmart gained the following of an innumerable number of people, who gladly followed him as they wished to shake off the yoke of very harsh servitude from their necks. He won the minds of men as he was a wise and prudent man despite being an infidel, and he promised them a reward of invaluable freedom. Among those who followed Ibn Tūmart was a prudent, generous and bellicose man called ʿAbd al-Muʾmin,[xix] whose assistance Ibn Tūmart rather frequently made use of in arduous matters.
Ibn Tūmart and his supporters fought against the earlier mentioned king of the Moabites and his people. Although they were often overcome by the Moabites, they eventually defeated the latter, deposed the from rule and occupied the famous city of Marrakesh. The earlier mentioned ʿAbd al-Muʾmin was made king in that city and the realm of the Moabites by the hand of Ibn Tūmart, who was seemingly a prophet for the king. But those who obtained control of that kingdom were called the Almohads: that is, the Unifiers, because they professed that they only worshipped the One God, Whom Ibn Tūmart preached about, as is manifestly made clear in a little book he composed.[xx] From ʿAbd al-Muʾmin are descended the kings who have had control of the Moroccan realm until the present time. This kingdom has flourished since then until now, but presently it is beginning to be made desolate through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ.
ʿAbd al-Muʾmin’s son was Ibn Yaʿqūb,[xxi] who died in Portugal when he besieged the noble and famous town of Santares. His son participated in the battle of Alarcos and by God’s permission he gained victory over the Christians and captured Calatrava, Alarcos and other surrounding forts, as well as Malagon and the tower of Guadalferza. This king and his deeds will be discussed. But that is enough for now.
7. Louis, the king of the Franks, married the Emperor’s daughter[xxii] who was called Sancha. The two sons of the Emperor harmed the latter’s realm and were the cause of many massacres and many evils that befell the Spanish lands. Indeed by the permission of God on account of the sins of men, he divided his kingdom for his two sons at the urging of Count Ferdinand of Galicia. To his first-born Sancho,[xxiii] he gave Castile, Abula, Segovia and other towns surrounding it in Extremadura, Toledo and all its localities that are in the direction of those regions beyond the Sierra, and also Tierra and de Campis as far as Saint Facundus and Asturias of Saint Juliana. The emperor gave his younger son Ferdinand[xxiv] the remainder of his kingdom in the direction of León, plus Galicia, Toro, Zamora and Salamanca together with other villages surrounding Salamanca. After this unfortunate division, the Emperor died next to Puerto de Muradal while returning with his army from the land of the Saracens, and he was buried in the church at Toledo.
8. His son King Sancho had married mistress Blanca prior to the death of his father. She was the daughter of King Ramiro García of Navarre. From her, Sancho had begotten a son prior to the Emperor’s death. This son was Alfonso, our glorious and famous lord.[xxv] At the beginning of his reign, King Sancho embarked on some arduous and wondrous deeds. And so all who knew him hoped that he would be a virtuous king by virtue of those deeds he had previously done and those deeds that he was newly embarking upon. But the Most-High, who arranges everything, brought an end to his life one year after his father died,[xxvi] and he was buried next to his father in the church at Toledo.
9. After Sancho’s death, his glorious son Alfonso remained. He was a tender infant who was barely three years old, and there was great upheaval in the kingdom of Castile, such as there had not been for a long time. Indeed, as the kingdom’s magnates were at odds with each other, Ferdinand Roderic (the son of Roderic Ferdinand, who was in turn the brother of Guterius Ferdinand de Castro), his brothers and other friends and relatives who followed him formed a faction of their own, wanting to escape the persecution and oppression at the hands of the sons of Count Peter de Lara (namely, Count Malric, Count Nunius, Count Álvaro and all their kin). For Ferdinand Roderic and his brothers and relatives held- as a possession from King Sancho- many forts that were strong and well-fortified. Around the time of Sancho’s death, they and other powerful men in the kingdom had received an order from him that they should not give the lands they held or the forts to anyone except his son when he reached the age of 15.
So when discord and inexorable hatred arose between the factions of the powerful men, Count Malric and his brother Count Nunius had King Alfonso in their custody and kept control of the kingdom for a long time, because (as they said) they were trying, at the boy’s request, to subject the entire kingdom to their control for the sake of the boy’s honour and benefit. As is believed, the other faction made arrangements for the Emperor’s son, King Ferdinand, to enter the kingdom of Castile. Since Ferdinand was more closely related to the boy, he wanted to exercise tutelage over the boy and manage the kingdom. However, since the aforementioned counts Malric and Nunius impeded Ferdinand by means of trickery that was nonetheless laudable and then by means of force, he could not get what he wanted.
In that time, innumerable massacres and countless raids of plunder were carried out in all the regions of the kingdom: everywhere and indiscriminately so. In that time, Count Malric fought against Ferdinand Roderic, with whom the people of Huete were allied. However, Count Malric had the boy with him, and he succumbed in a battle and was killed in that same battle.
10. When the glorious king reached the age of 15, Ferdinand Roderic and his brothers and their friends restored to King Alfonso the lands they held as well as the forts, in accordance with the order of Alfonso’s father. Having become somewhat grand, the king began to act in a manly manner, be strengthened in the Lord, and implement justice, which he always loved and powerfully and wisely exercised until the end of his life. After becoming an adolescent, Alfonso besieged Cuenca, which he kept under siege for a long time, and by the grace of God he assaulted and captured it.[xxvii] Through his diligent effort, he adorned the city with the dignity of a bishop’s see, and it is today among the cities of the kingdom of Castile that are noble and better fortified by nature and craftsmanship.
He subsequently recovered Lucronium and other towns and forts in the direction of Navarre, which his uncle King Sancho (his mother’s brother) had held under occupation for a long period of time.
In the same period, he mobilised a large and strong army to fight against his paternal uncle King Ferdinand of León, and he recovered the land called Infantium. King Ferdinand had married Urraca, the daughter of King Alfonso of Portugal. However, she could not be his legitimate wife since she was a third-degree relative in terms of canonical reckoning. For the Emperor and the aforementioned king of Portugal were second-degree relatives of each other, because they were the sons of two sisters who were the daughters of the King Alfonso who captured Toledo. On account of this connection of impiety, King Ferdinand had handed many forts over to the king of Portugal, which he subsequently recovered from the king of Portugal when the latter was captured in Badajoz and crippled in such a way that he could never again ride a horse.
Giraldus (the one called ‘Without Fear’) was also captured at that time and handed over to Roderic Ferdinand of Castile. In exchange for his liberation, Giraldus gave him Montanges, Trugellum, Santa Cruz, and Monfra, which Giraldus had acquired from the Saracens. Having been reduced to poverty and made destitute of all help, Giraldus went over to the Saracens upon whom he had brought many woeful losses. He was beheaded by them in the regions of Morocco when they found an opportunity to do so.
11. From Urraca, King Ferdinand begat a son: namely, King Alfonso of León,[xxviii] who now rules in his father’s place. When King Ferdinand died, his son, who was at the time an adolescent, feared being deprived of his realm by the power of lord Alfonso, the glorious king of Castile, whose praise and fame had now filled a great part of the world, for he was fearsome and to be feared by all neighbouring Saracen and Christian kings. Thus it was negotiated and arranged that one of the king of Castile’s daughters should be betrothed to King Alfonso of León, contrary to divine and canonical pronouncements, because the kings were second-degree relatives of each other as the sons of two brothers.
Moreover, it was stipulated and affirmed that the king of León should be made a soldier by the king of Castile and that he should kiss the latter’s hand. This took place. A famous and noble assembly was held at Carrión, and the same king of León was girdled with a sword by the king of Castile in the church of Saint Zoilus, and he kissed the king of Castile’s hand in the presence of the Galicians, Leonese and Castilians.
After a short interval of barely two months, Conrad, the son of Roman Emperor Frederic[xxix] was made a soldier by the king of Castile with another magnificent assembly held in the same town of Carrión. The king of Castile betrothed his daughter mistress Berengaria to him. She was barely eight years old. The king also had homage paid to him from the whole kingdom, so that Conrad should reign after him in the event that he passed away without a son. For at that time the glorious king lord Alfonso did not have a son, but only daughters.
12. By that time Alfonso[xxx] had built the famous and opulent city of Plasencia, and had acquired from the Saracens the very well-fortified fort that is called Alarcon. He began to build a town called Alarcos, and before the wall had been completed and the locality’s populators had been planted there, he made war on the Moroccan king,[xxxi] whose realm was flourishing at that time and was feared by neighbouring kings because of its power and very great glory.
The lord King of Castile sent lord Archbishop Martin of Toledo of blessed memory, who was a prudent, king and generous man, so loved by all that he was considered to be the father of all. The same archbishop took noble and strenuous men with him, as well as a multitude of soldiers and infantry. With them, he ravaged a large part of the land of the Moors on this side of the sea, stripping it of many riches and a countless multitude of cows, sheep and cattle.
When the Moroccan king (the third king since the earlier mentioned ʿAbd al-Muʾmin)[xxxii] heard about this, he sighed as he was touched with grief in his heart. He immediately left Marrakesh, assembled a countless multitude of soldiers and infantry, and crossed the sea. He came to Cordoba, crossed the Puerto de Muradal and made with great haste for the plain of the fort that is now called Salvatierra.[xxxiii]
When the glorious king lord Alfonso heard about the arrival of this Moor (namely, the Amīr al-Muʾminīn,[xxxiv] for the Moroccan kings were called by this title), he ordered his vassals to follow him with all haste. Like a lion that roars and bellows for its prey, he went in front of his men and came very quickly to Toledo, where he stayed for some days as he waited for the magnates of the land, the noble vassals and a multitude of people who followed him.
Then he moved his camp towards Alarcos and set up camp there, having a very firm plan (which subsequently came to fruition) to fight with the Amīr al-Muʾminīn if the latter crossed the place called El Congosto in order to head towards Alarcos, which was considered to mark the boundary of the kingdom of Castile. For Alfonso preferred to expose his life and rule to such great danger and entrust them to the will of God by fighting against the king of the Moors who was considered more powerful and wealthy than all the Saracens, rather than allowing for the king of the Moors to enter his realm through any space. For this reason, the glorious king of Castile did not want to wait for the king of León who was coming to help him and was at that point in the region of Talavera, despite the fact that he had been advised to do so by some men who were prudent and experts in matters of war.
So the Moor- namely, the Amīr al-Muʾminīn- came to the place called Congosto, and set up camp there, located between the fort called Salvatierra and Alarcos.
13. Hearing about this, the glorious king of Castile ordered all his men to go forth to the plain at the crack of dawn, armed with their weapons so that they should fight against the king of Moors. Indeed he believed that the king of the Moors would come to battle on the same day. So when it was morning, the Castilians went forth to the plain and prepared to fight in the event of the presence of the enemy against whom they should brandish their weapons. However, the Moors rested on that day, preparing themselves for the next day, and also wanting to elude their enemies so that the latter would be worn out on that day by the weight of their weapons first and would thus prove to be less fit to fight on the next day. This is what happened. For the glorious king of Castile and his army were waiting for the enemy on the plain from the crack of dawn until midday, and weighed down by the weight of their arms and thirst, they returned to their camp, believing that the king of the Moors would not dare to fight them.
The king of the Moors ordered his men to prepare themselves around midnight for war, and at the crack of dawn they suddenly appeared in the plain where the king of Castile had stood on the previous day. A tumult arose in the Christians’ camp, and as is often accustomed to happen, the unexpected situation made the enemy become astonished and afraid. The Christians suddenly came out from their camp and went forth to the plain in a less orderly manner. They fought with the Moors, and great men fell on the Christians’ frontline: Ordoño García de Roda and his brothers, Peter Roderic de Guzman and his son-in-law Roderic Sancho, and many others.
The Arabs roamed about, inflicting ruin on the Christian people. A countless multitude of arrows, drawn from the quivers of bows, flew through the air, and arrows fired at uncertain targets inflicted wounds on the Christians. Both sides fought fiercely. That day, profuse with human bloodshed, sent the Moors to the Hell and sent the Christians to the eternal palaces.
The noble and glorious king saw that his men were succumbing in battle, and thus came forth and manfully broke forth into the midst of the enemy’s ranks, and laid low the Moors to his left and right with the help of those who were attending to him. But his men who were attending to him as his close companions saw that they could not bear the countless multitude of the Moors, since many of them had by now fallen in battle (for the battle had lasted a long time and the Sun had grown hot at midday on the feast day of Saint Marina). Thus, they begged the king to leave and save his life, because the Lord God seemed to be angry with the Christian people. However, the king did not want to listen to them and preferred to end his life with a glorious death than to withdraw from battle after being overcome. His men realised that danger was threatening the entirety of Spain and thus they led him away from the battle, with him being seemingly reluctant and recalcitrant. So the king came to Toledo with a few soldiers, grieving and wailing about the such great misfortune that had happened.
Diaz Lupus de Vizcaya, his noble vassal, retreated to the fort of Alarcos, where he was besieged by the Moors. But by the grace of God who kept him alive for great things, he escaped after giving some hostages, and he followed the king and came to Toledo some days later.
The king of the Moors seized the spoils and captured some forts: namely, the tower of Guadalferza, Malagon, Beneventum, Calatrava, Alarcos and Caracuel. Thus did he return to his own land.
14. The king of León who was going to help the king of Castile, came to Toledo, and through the counsel of some agents of Satan, he turned towards wicked intention, seeking excuses to leave his friend, and he transformed from a friend into a very cruel enemy. Indeed, deep within his mind lay the memory of what had happened to him in the earlier mentioned assembly that was held in Carrión.
Thus, he departed from Toledo and the glorious king, indignant that the king had not wanted to give some forts he had sought. He was also pleased and joyful about the misfortune that had befallen the Castilians. He forthwith allied with the Moroccan king, and after receiving money and a multitude of armed soldiers from the latter, he made war on the king of Castile. As a result, in the following year at the time when the kings normally go to wage wars, the Amīr al-Muʾminīn was ravaging the land beyond the Sierra and seemingly kept the city of Toledo under a state of siege for many days, and the king of León entered the realm of Castile via Tierra de Campos with the aforementioned multitude of Moors. As enemies of the cross of Christ, these Moors committed many monstrous deeds against the churches and church furnishings, to the insult and disgrace of the Christian people. The king of León reached Carrión where he seemed to purge the disgrace that he believed had been brought upon him when he kissed the king of Castile’s hand.
At that time, King Sancho of Navarre, who was related to the king of Castile in the second degree of consanguinity on both sides, built a fort next to the vineyards of Logroño. He called this fort Corvum. He also began to ravage the kingdom of Castile from that direction, since he was believed to have some just cause of war.
Thus, the Christians linked to the Moors with a bond of impiety seemed to have conspired to inflict desolation upon the king of Castile, ferociously bringing whatever evils they could upon the entire kingdom everywhere. As a result, in the entire kingdom not even one corner could be found where anyone could be safe. The ascending fire appeared before the Lord’s fury and seemed to crush whatever elation of mind the noble king might have conceived on the basis of past glory, so that the prudent and noble king might understand that the kingdom of the sons of men lies in the hand of God and that He will give it to whomsoever He wills.
15. The glorious king was not broken much by adverse matters, nor was he excessively elated in times of prosperity. As such, he manfully girded himself to defend his kingdom, placing his hope and confidence in the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom he always had and kept very firm faith while fighting against every heretical wickedness.
In that time, Queen Sancha of Aragon, the aunt of the king of Castile, was the guardian for her son King Peter of Aragon[xxxv] who was a young adolescent, and she exercised regency over his kingdom. For not long after the battle of Alarcos,[xxxvi] King Alfonso of Aragon, who was the son of the count of Barcelona and the father of King Peter, went the way of all flesh. People suspected that he was contriving whatever evil he could to bring loss upon the king of the realm of Castile. But the aforementioned queen cherished the king of Castile more than all other men even when her husband was alive, as a result of which she was considerably loathsome to her husband.
So once the opportunity was acquired, the fire of love that had lay somewhat hidden in the queen’s breast while her husband was alive because of fear of the latter, burst forth into a manifest flame and very firmly made her son become allied with the king of Castile. Like the wise Abigail, she made arrangements so that she could provide great help for the king of Castile. So that the king of Aragon could help the king of Castile more readily, the former received from the latter a large sum of money as a gift, since he had struggled somewhat with poverty. So once King Peter became a mature adolescent, he acted on his prudent mother’s counsel and was accompanied by his noble vassals, and thus he came to the king of Castile and became inseparably joined to the latter as long as the war persisted.
The kings adopted a prudent plan and thus set up camp next to Avila in a very safe place that is also cold in mid-summer. This place is commonly called Palomera. From this place, if it should be necessary, they could comfortably help their men who were located beyond the Sierra and defending the towns and forts against the Moroccan king, and also help those who were in Tierra de Campos. Positioned as such in the middle, they were feared by the enemies on both side, and those enemies could not simply wander wherever they liked.
When it was discovered that the Moroccan king was returning to his own land, they moved their camp to oppose the king of León. They sent forth a noble, prudent and strenuous man- Ferdinand Roderic de Alverracim- with a multitude of soldiers so that they should hold back the king of León and his army in the kingdom of Castile and prevent them from being able to return freely to their own abodes. But the king of León came to know in advance about this plan, and very hurriedly returned to his own land, such that the nobleman Ferdinand Roderic could not catch up with him in the kingdom of Castile. Despite this, Ferdinand Roderic pursued him into his own kingdom.
With their army, the kings followed the soldiers they had sent forth and entered the kingdom of León, ravaging the entire land everywhere as it did not have a defender. They assaulted and captured by force the town that is called Castrum Viridi, where they captured Count Ferdinand de Cabrera, the nobleman Álvaro Pelayo, Peter Ovario, Alfonso Armillez who was a Portuguese nobleman, and all the soldiers of these men. Then the kings proceeded further and approached Beneventum where the king of León was with the Moors and his Christian vassals. The kings also reached Astorga, and then some of their men reached Ravanal, and others entered the land called Berezo. Thus, they ravaged the surrounding regions, returned to León and besieged and forcibly captured Castrum Iudeorum.[xxxvii] They then fortified and retained it. Thus, with great honour and much booty, they returned to the kingdom of Castile.
In the following year, that is the third year after the battle of Alarcos, the Moroccan king came again to the land that is beyond the Sierra and besieged the town called Madrid. He kept the town under siege for many days, but divine power protected it through the help of Diaz Lupus, other nobles and the people inside the town. Then this king broke off the siege and went towards Uclés, Obte and Cenca, and thus he returned to his own land. In the same period of time, the king of León recovered Castrum Iudeorum next to León.
The king of Castile and the king of Aragon again entered the kingdom of León and brought many woes upon the Leonese. The king of León then went to the Moroccan king, whom he found at Seville. Eventually, a truce was struck between the king of Morocco and the king of Castile, with the former returning to his kingdom’s throne at Marrakesh. Peace was re-established between the king of León and the king of Castile, but it was only able to be re-established by the king of Castile marrying off his daughter mistress Berengaria[xxxviii] to the king of León in a de facto marriage arrangement, because the marriage was not lawful owing to the fact that the kings were related to each other in the second degree of consanguinity.
16. The glorious king of Castile did not forget the evils that the king of Navarre[xxxix] had brought upon him and his kingdom in the time of his distress, and thus he entered the king of Navarre’s kingdom and began to ravage it. When the king of Navarre saw that he could not resist the king of Castile, he abandoned his own kingdom and fled to the Moroccan king and went to the city of Marrakesh, imploring the Moroccan king’s help and begging him to deign to provide him assistance.
In the meantime, the king of Castile besieged Victoria, and while the siege was ongoing, he took control of all its surrounding forts: namely, Triviño, Arganzon, Santa Cruz, Alchorroza, old Victoria, Esluca, the land called Ipuzcaia, San Sebastián, Maranon, Saint Vicentius and some other localities.[xl] Eventually, Victoria was surrendered to him, and thus he had control of all of Alava and its surrounding lands, and thus he victoriously returned to Castile.
The king of Navarre, devoid of all help, received a sum of money, and some income was assigned to him by the Moroccan king in Valencia. He stayed in Valencia for a long period of time. A truce was signed between the king of Castile and the king of Navarre, with all the forts and towns that the king of Castile had acquired in the king of Navarre’s kingdom remaining under the king of Castile’s control.
17. After this, the glorious king of Castile, who had no rest except never resting and no delight except continual toil, strove to gain control of all of Vasconia,[xli] which he believed belonged to him by right as though it had been promised to him by his father-in-law King Henry of England. The noble king of Castile had married mistress Eleanor who was King Henry’s daughter.[xlii] She was very noble in her manners and lineage, and chaste and very prudent. King Henry was said to have promised Vasconia with her to his son-in-law, the king of Castile.
In that time, King John was king of England,[xliii] having the nickname Sine Terra.[xliv] He was the brother of Queen Eleanor. King Henry had four sons. Two of them were the young king and count of Britany, who both died before their father did. The third was Richard, the count of Poitiers, who succeeded his father in rule: when he returned from the regions beyond the sea, he besieged a fort in the land of Limoges or thereabouts, and while besieging it he was mortally wounded by an arrow, and thus went the way of all flesh. The fourth son was John Sine Terra, who succeeded his brother Richard in rule, since Richard had passed away without offspring. During the reign of this King John, whom King Philip of Francia had deprived of Normandy, Andegavia, the land of Tours and the famous city of Poitiers, the king of Castile entered Vasconia with some of his vassals and almost seized the entire land except for Baiona and Bordeaux. He also took possession of Blaya and Borc, which lie beyond the Garonne, and the land that lies between the two seas. Thus did he return to his kingdom.
Before the king of Castile entered Vasconia, a truce had been signed between him and the king of León. Returning from Vasconia, he signed a peace treaty with the king and received lord Diaz Lupus, who had been in exile for a long time. The reason for the discord between the glorious king of Castile and the king of León had been the fact that the king of León had repudiated the king of Castile’s daughter: namely, Queen Mistress Berengaria, from whom the king of León had already begotten two sons and two daughters.
Although the noble king of Castile, as a wise and prudent man, understood that toiling to acquire Vasconia was like ploughing the shoreline, he was driven by some compulsion and thus could not desist from what he had started. The poverty of the land and fickleness of its people, whom one could rarely trust, made the land of Vasconia odious to the king, but the love of his wife and desire not to sadden her compelled him to pertinaciously engage in what he had started. Eventually, he saw that he was not making progress, and thus he absolved both the Basque noblemen and people of its towns from their oath of loyalty and homage by which they were bound to him. What a happy and forever lovable day it was for the kingdom of Castile when the glorious king gave up on his persistence and abandoned what he had started! Otherwise, Vasconia would have dried up Castile’s flowing fountain of gold and consumed its noble leaders.
18. Before the noble king went to Vasconia, he handed his beautiful daughter called Blanca (who has now been crowned Queen of Francia) in marriage to Louis,[xlv] the son of King Philip of Francia.[xlvi] Louis now reigns in the kingdom of Francia in place of his father.[xlvii] After the king of Castile returned from Vasconia, he married off his daughter Urraca to Alfonso, the son of King Sancho of Portugal.[xlviii] This Alfonso subsequently came to rule in the same kingdom in succession to his father Sancho.
During the same period, the glorious king had two sons: Ferdinand and Henry. When Ferdinand reached the years of puberty, he was so generous (not to say lavish) that when he bestowed many things, he believed that he had given nothing, since there remained those who would make requests, but whose greed he could not fully satisfy. Nobles flowed to him in groups from every region of Spain. He would receive them all as if they were very well known to him, and he would relieve their needs with many gifts. Eventually, once the beardless young man’s guardianship was removed, he took delight in horses, dogs and the grass of the open field. He would play with various kinds of birds. His manners were praised beyond measure by people of his age. Once he became grown up, he adopted prudence towards the end of his adolescence, and equipped with the strength bestowed by his youthful age, he began to despise all the things in which he used to delight, and he began to train in use of arms, gladly becoming close to those whom he knew to be strenuous in use of arms and experts in matters of war.
When the glorious king saw his son’s desire, his handsomeness (for he was very handsome) and the strength bestowed by his youthful age, the king took delight in him, giving thanks to the Lord who had given him such a son who could be his assistant in running the kingdom and could partly fulfil his roles in matters of war. What had never left the king’s mind remained deeply implanted in it: namely, the misfortune he had suffered in the battle of Alarcos. He often recalled that day to mind, desiring to do likewise to the Moroccan king. He often implored the Lord for this very thing.
The Most-High, who is the patient restorer, saw the glorious king’s desire, and thus inclined His ear and heard the king’s prayer from His glorious throne on high. Thus, the Spirit of the Lord came upon the glorious king and virtue from on high was endowed upon him, and thus the king brought into effect what he had long ago conceived in his mind. Thus, he initiated war against the Moroccan king, trusting in the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ; and forthwith, accompanied by his son, he entered the Moroccan king’s land, heading towards the regions of Murcia. But since he only had a few of his vassals, he could not do much harm to the Moors. However, while he was active in those regions, his vassals Alfonso Tello and Roderic Roderic, with the help of some Toledans, besieged the tower of Guadalferza and captured it by force after bringing the siege engines against it.
When King ʿAbd al-Muʾmin IV of Morocco[xlix] (the son of the third one), who came to Alarcos, heard that the king of Castile had initiated war against him, he became indignant and filled with rage. As a strenuous and bellicose man, he could not bear to delay, and thus he assembled a countless multitude of soldiers and infantry, opened up his treasuries and bestowed very generous stipends on his men. For at that time the Moroccan kingdom was flourishing thanks to the prudence of its rulers and its riches. The Moroccan king then crossed the sea with a multitude of warriors. He passed through Seville and Cordoba. He passed through Puerto de Muradal, and besieged the fort called Salvatierra. At that time Salvatierra was the military base of the order of brothers of Calatrava, and it was fortified with various sorts of weapons, and possessed corn, barley, various kinds of vegetables, supply of meats and strenuous men, who were the brothers themselves and other nobles and distinguished men. The siege was tightened, and the Moors began to assail the fort with wondrously large siege engines, because the fort seemed otherwise unassailable.[l]
19. When the noble king heard about this, he ordered lord Diaz to stay at Toledo with his vassals and some other magnates. The king ran about through the villages and forts that are beyond the Sierra, strengthening the minds of men. As for the army that he could muster, it remained in the sierra of Saint Vincentius, for only a few councils had followed it in that time.
More than two months later, by the order of the glorious king, the aforementioned fort of Salvatierra was returned to the Moroccan king, because they could not defend it. Those who were inside were spared, along with their mobile property that they could take with them. Oh what great grief the men felt, with the one voice of the women who were wailing and striking their chests because of the loss of Salvatierra!
But by the mercy and power of our Lord Jesus Christ, who helps his people in the right moments and tribulation, the grief was turned into joy a year later. Indeed the fort was named Salvatierra[li] seemingly on the basis of some foreboding. For through that fort, the Lord doubly saved the entire land, because the arrival of the Moroccan king brought no harm to the land in any other place that year, although he could have brought many losses upon it. Moreover, the capture of Salvatierra was the particular pretext for the glorious battle that was waged in the following year at Las Navas de Tolosa,[lii] where the Moroccan king was overcome by the power of Christ’s cross.
Touched with grief in his heart, the glorious king placed his spirit in his own hands. After he held discussions and deliberations with his son, lord Diaz, the archbishop of Toledo and other magnates of the kingdom, it was decided that in the following year, they should place their hope in God and fight against the Moroccan king, unless Alfonso should be at fault. So an edict came out from the glorious king and went through the entire kingdom, ordering that all should pause the construction of the walls that they were engaged in, obtain arms of war and prepare themselves for the coming war.
20. Barely 15 days had passed after the proclamation of this edict when the king’s son Ferdinand, the flower of youth, the glory of the kingdom, and his father’s right hand, came to the end of his life in the territory of Madrid after being seized by an acute fever.[liii] The king’s heart weakened, his nobles and noblemen were shocked, while the peoples of the cities pined away with grief, and the wise men were terrified, noticing that God’s anger and indignation had decreed to render the land desolate. Nowhere was grief absent, while the senior officials sprinkled their heads with ash, and all put on sack-cloths and hair-shirts, and all the virgins were in a squalid state. The face of the land was completely changed.
When the very noble Queen Eleanor heard of her son’s death, she wanted to die with him, and entered the bed where her son was lying. She placed her mouth on his mouth and embraced his hands with her hands, and she tried either to revive him or die with him. As asserted by those who saw, never did her grief appear to be similar to this. One may proclaim with the people: oh how high are the riches of God’s wisdom and knowledge! How incomprehensible are His judgements and untraceable are His ways! His thoughts have become very profound, and we, lacking sense, do not understand them.
What seemed to be the beginnings of pains and confirmation of woes were in fact the end of woes and the beginning of joy and consolations. The king’s son was buried in the royal monastery that is located next to Burgos: the burial was performed by the archbishop of Toledo with the presence of the Queen Mistress Berengaria and the lamentations of all who were in Castile, whereas the glorious king, his wife and lord Diaz remained beyond the Sierra. Then the archbishop and Queen Mistress Berengaria returned to the king, whom they found at Guadalajara.
Then Archbishop Roderic of Toledo[liv] was sent to the king of Francia and the nobles and other noblemen of those regions, so that he could show them the suffering of the Christian people and the crisis of the coming war. The noble king went to Cuenca, where he had a meeting with his friend King Peter of Aragon and bound the latter in an oath to him, whereby Peter swore that on the eighth day of the forthcoming feast of Pentecost, he would be at Toledo with the king of Castile, prepared for war against the Moroccan king.
After holding the meeting, the two men parted ways, and the noble king, donning virtue from on high, went to the fort called Alarcon, and there he sent away his wife and daughter. With the help of a few soldiers and the men of some villages and his retinue, within 15 days he captured the noble fort of Xorquera that seemed unassailable, as well as the fort of Alcala and las Cuevas de Garanden. He fortified all these forts with weapons and men, and thus he joyfully returned to his own land.
21. These were the beginnings of joy. All who had faltered because of grief and anguish regarding the capture of Salvatierra and the death of the king’s son were strengthened in the Lord and the power of His goodness, such that from that moment on, the greatest desire of all, both noble and ignoble, was to harass the Moroccan king by waging war against him. Indeed the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is true God and true man, was secretly at work, because it could suddenly turn the hearts of men from a state of fear to a state of boldness, and from a state of desperation to a state of utmost confidence.
The archbishop of Toledo approached the king of Francia. Although he explained to the latter the righteous path’s cause and the Christian people’s need and distress, he could not get the king of Francia to say something good. The archbishop went around all of Francia, supplicating the magnates and promising them many things on the part of the king of Castile, but he could not move one of them.
The noble king, whose entire intention and zeal were set on this matter, also sent an industrious man to the regions of Pictavia and Vasconia. He was master Arnaldus, his physician. The king wanted him to incite the minds of the figures of power, promising them many things on the king’s part in return for participating in the war to come. Many nobles and magnates of those regions came with the archbishop of Bordeaux to help the king of Castile in the following summer, when the time of war was imminent. The archbishop of Narbonne came from the regions of Provence (through which the aforementioned archbishop had crossed), and some others came from the province of Vienne.
So around the time of the feast of Pentecost, peoples from everywhere began to flow to the city of Toledo, and on the eighth day of the feast, King Peter of Aragon entered Toledo, as he had promised, accompanied by just one soldier. Later he was followed by his many good vassals, ready for matters of war. While the nobles and people of the king of Castile and the king of Aragon were gathering, the noble king of Castile sufficiently covered all the expenses for all the people who had come from Pictavia, Vasconia, Provence and other regions, as well as the king of Aragon. Here, such a great quantity of gold was poured out everyday that the counters and weighers could hardly count the multitude of denarii that were necessary for the expenses. The entire clergy of the kingdom of Castile, at the king’s petition, had granted their lord king half of all their revenues in that same year. Besides the daily stipends, the king of Castile sent the king of Aragon a large sum of money before the latter left his own kingdom, since he was a poor man and obligated by many debts, and without the king of Castile’s help, he could not have provided the necessary stipends to his soldiers who were obliged to follow him.
So all were burning with desire for the war to come and hurried to move their camp, but the Pictavians and the other people from beyond the mountains had neither suitable horses for battle nor cattle to carry their baggage that was necessary for the expedition. On the basis of his noble intention, the glorious leader, who poured out gold like water, very generously granted all of them their necessities.
22. So moving their camp, they set out in Lord Jesus Christ’s name towards Malagon, which they seized from the Moors’ hands in a moment and seemingly in the blink of an eye, cutting to pieces as many of them as were found, though without good reason to do so. Then, while they approached Calatrava, the locality was surrendered to them by a Moor who was called Avencalem, while the men and women who were found there were spared. Then they captured Beneventum, Alarcos and Caracuel.
When the people from beyond the mountains,[lv] who were accustomed to live in the shade in temperate regions, saw the excess heat and fervour of the Sun, they began to grumble, saying that they had come to wage war against the Moroccan king as they had been requested, but since they could not find him, they wanted to head home by all means possible. When this talk was heard, all the Christians grieved about the withdrawal being prepared by the people from beyond the mountains. They were around 1000 noble soldiers, strenuous and powerful in arms, and around 60,000 armed infantry, whose seeming head and leader was the archbishop of Bordeaux.
The noble king and the king of Aragon strove to retain them, but they could not accomplish this in any way. Although the noble king had been advised to terrify them with harsh words and threats, because they had consumed their own resources and had received many gifts from him, he nonetheless did not want to agree to this counsel, but rather he permitted them to depart in peace, giving gifts to the archbishop of Bordeaux and covering their expenses. At that point the Moroccan king’s army was not two days journey away from the Christians’ army. God who is wondrous in His holy works, so wondrously provided for Spain and the kingdom of Castile in particular, that with the withdrawal of the people from beyond the mountains, the glory of victory in that famous war became attributed to the Spaniards and not the people from beyond the mountains. While the people from beyond the mountains departed, a few remained with Theobald de Blazon (who was Peter Roderic de Guzman’s son) and the archbishop of Narbonne, who had originated from Catalonia. The Christians, who had previously been saddened, became enthusiastically opposed to mere contemplation, and thus they moved their camp towards Salvatierra, where they also pitched camp.
On the following day they remained in the same place, and by the order of the kings, both the nobles and the common people, equipped with arms, came forth onto the plain as though they were already intending to fight against the enemy. Indeed, the arranged battle-lines of the camp were fearsome; never had so many and such great iron weapons been seen in the Spanish lands. The kings, who were thrilled by such a sweet and yet such a fearsome sight, conceived bold intentions, and the preconceived hope of victory added strength to the minds and bodies of all.
The camp was moved quickly and with enthusiasm towards Puerto de Muradal. When they approached it, they ascertained for certain that part of the Moroccan king’s army was holding Puerto de Losa, where none could cross without their will. The leading men went away to hold a meeting. The king of Aragon, the king of Navarre (who was by now present, although he had come with only a few soldiers), the archbishops of Toledo and Narbonne, the glorious king’s vassal Diaz Lupus and other magnates of both kingdoms gathered in the king of Castile’s tent. They intended to deliberate as to what should be done in a time of such great exigency. Some were of the opinion that each should return to his own land, since it was possible to do so with honour and glory, since it was not possible to cross the mountains in any way. Others thought that another puerto should be sought out, but the glorious king thought that it would be disgraceful to withdraw. They parted company at an evening hour, not finding any decision that could please them, but they decided to implore divine help in accordance with the counsel of King Josaphat, about whom one reads in the book of Kings: When we do not know what we should do, we have this as the sole remaining means, the sole remaining option we have is to raise our eyes to heaven.[lvi]
23. García Romero, a nobleman and a prudent, strenuous and loyal vassal of the king of Aragon, was the only one who had remained with the glorious king in his tent. Then God sent someone in the guise of a pastor, who secretly spoke to the glorious king. The pastor promised that he would point out a very nearby place to the one the king should order to go with him: according to the pastor, the king’s entire army could cross the very tall mountains through this place without being exposed to danger. The king greatly rejoiced and ordered for García Romero to be summoned, and informed him of what he had learned from the pastor. García Romero immediately went out by the glorious king’s order and summoned his soldiers. With the pastor acting as a guide, he reached a certain place by sunset, where he saw with his own eyes what the pastor had promised the noble king. Joyful and delighted, he hurriedly returned to the glorious king, reporting to him that he had found things to be just as the pastor had said they would be.
It is believed by those who rightly know, that it was not a mere man, but some divine power that came to help the Christian people amid their such great distress, since so many guides, so many pastors and so many brothers of Calatrava often ran about through those places, but none of them knew anything about that particular place. Nor did the same pastor appear subsequently.
They were silent on that night. At the crack of dawn, the word was spread in the camp. All were filled with great joy and moved their camp, and on the same day (i.e. Saturday)[lvii] they crossed the rugged mountainous places and the hollows of the valleys, and they descended onto the plain and set up camp opposite the Moroccan king’s camp. The Moors saw the Christians’ camp and were filled with both stupor and fear.
On the following morning (Sunday), the Moors went forth to the plain, prepared to fight, but the Christians rested on that day, defending their tents against the Saracens’ attack. The Moors, swollen with pride, were rushing on all sides towards the Christians’ tents, but realising that the Christians did not want to fight on that day, they returned with their king to their own camp’s place, as though they were victorious.
The light of dawn grew red, preceding the very clear and fortunate day on which any stigma or disgrace acquired by the glorious king and his kingdom at the battle of Alarcos, would be purged by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and his most victorious Cross, against which the Moroccan king had blasphemed with his defiled mouth. For when it was heard that the glorious king had sent the archbishop of Toledo and his legates to Francia and other regions of the Christians in order to invite the people following the Catholic faith to participate in the war-to-come, the Moroccan king is said to have said that he was capable of waging war against all who worshiped the sign of the Cross. Oh Lord Jesus, you cast him down while he was exalted, for such men are raised on high with their haughtiness unrestrained, so that they may collapse with a heavier fall.
24. So the Christians got up after midnight, at which hour Christ (whom they worshipped) victoriously rose from the dead. After hearing the solemnities of the missals, they were renewed with the life-giving sacraments of the body and blood of our God Jesus Christ. Fortifying themselves with the sign of the Cross, they quickly took up arms of war, and rejoicing, they rushed to battle as though they had been invited to a banquet. They were not delayed by the rough and rocky places, the hollows of the valleys, or the rugged mountainous places. They rushed against the enemy, prepared to die or win.
On the frontline of the glorious king’s side was his noble, loyal and strenuous vassal, Diaz Lupus. With him was Sancho Ferdinand, who was the son of King Ferdinand of León[lviii] and the glorious king’s sister Urraca. Also with him was Lupus Diaz, the son of Diaz Lupus, and other blood-relations, friends and vassals of the king. On the king of Aragon’s side, García Romero held the frontline: a noble, strenuous and loyal man, and with him were very many other noble and powerful Aragonese men. Other battle-lines were arranged on the right and left as the order of battle demands. The kings themselves managed the backlines, with each of them separated from the other. For his part, the king of Navarre held a battle-line nobly arranged with arms and men. Thus, whoever was before his sight would go forward and not go back while he proceeded.
Those placed in the frontlines found the Moors prepared for battle. They came to blows, and both sides fought at close quarters with spears, swords and clubs. There was no place for archers. The Christians pressed on; the Moors resisted. A crash and tumult of arms arose. The battle persisted, and neither side was overcome, although sometimes the Christians struck the enemy, and sometimes they were repelled by the enemy. Sometimes desperate Christians who were retreating and fleeing would shout that the Christians had succumbed. Upon hearing this wild clamour, the glorious and noble king of Castile, who had been prepared to die rather than be beaten, ordered the one carrying his banner before him to drive his horse with spurs and hurry quickly to climb the mountain where the battle was raging. This was immediately done. When the Christians climbed the mountain, the Moors saw that seemingly new battle-lines were threatening them, and thus they gave ground, overcome by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Moroccan king, who was sitting in the midst of his men and surrounded by bodyguards chosen for the battle, got up, climbed a horse or mare, and turned to flee. His men were slaughtered and collapsed in groups, and the place of the camp and Moors’ tents became graves of the slaughtered. Those who escaped from battle were scattered and wandered in the mountains, like sheep without a pastor, and they were butchered wherever they were found.
25. Who could count how many thousands of Moors fell on that day and into the depths of hell? On the Christians’ side, very few died on that day. The Christians could sing with the psalmist: oh Lord, oh Lord my God, who teaches my hands to wage war and my fingers to do battle; my mercy and my refuge, my receiver, my liberator etc.[lix]
Satiated with shedding the blood of the Moors, the Christians became worn out by the weight of their arms, the heat and excessive thirst, and it was already evening. And so they returned to the Moors’ camp and rested there on that night, where they found in abundance the provisions they needed. Subsequently, they moved camp, advanced and found a noble fort (namely Vilche), which was empty and abandoned. They entered it and fortified it. They also took hold of Vaños, Tolosa and Ferrat. Then they came to Ubeda and besieged it. There they found a countless multitude of Moors shut inside. For after abandoning the other cities like Baecia (which the Christians found empty) and other neighbouring towns, all of the Moors flowed to Ubeda, a seemingly better fortified place and more suitable for defending them. But the confined multitude was heavy and burdensome for itself and was almost dying because of the excessive pressure.
The Moors saw the power of the Christians, who were now prevailing against them by assailing them manfully, and understood that they were devoid of all counsel and help, since the Moroccan king had fled to Seville and was arranging to cross the sea. Thus, they surrendered to the glorious king and the king of Aragon, per a pact whereby they would be spared but they themselves and all their property would become booty for the enemy. As reported by some of the Moors themselves who had been taken captive at that time in the town and who were believed to have known the number of those shut in, around 100,000 Saracens were captured there, including the children and women. All the valuable mobile property found was given to the king of Aragon and those who had come with him to war. He also took many of the Moors with him as captives. The accursed multitude that had been shut in the town was dispersed through all the regions of the Christians, since some people who came from the various regions of the world participated in this glorious and triumphant war.
They had proposed to proceed further, but God, whose will no one can resist, seemed to have impeded the way. I deem God’s judgements to have been hidden: perhaps the Christians imbibed a sense of elation and arrogance from their victory in the aforementioned war, when they should have attributed their victory to God alone and not to themselves. For once they had spent some days besieging the aforementioned war, a manifold variety of infirmities came upon so many of the Christians- in particular dysentery- that only a few remained healthy who could defend themselves against the enemy if necessity demanded that they should do so. In the same period, such great mortality came upon those who had survived the war, that in the autumn, a large proportion of the nobles and senior figures came to the end of their lives in the towns and cities.
When the kings saw that they could not proceed further in any way, they held a discussion and careful deliberation, and so almost all decided to return to their own lands. The walls of the aforementioned town had been partly torn down, the homes had been destroyed by fire, the trees and vines that they could cut had been cut, and Baecia had been rendered desolate. The Christians fortified the earlier mentioned forts with men, arms and other necessities, and then they returned to their own abodes, bearing victory, honour and much booty.
Then the glorious king restored to the king of Navarre some of the forts that the noble king had captured from the kingdom of Navarre. This was because the king of Navarre had come to help him, albeit with a few men. After defeating and laying low the very proud enemy, the glorious and noble king was received in Toledo with exultation and joy by all the peoples, who shouted and saying: “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”[lx]
In the time of this noble triumph, while the Catholic kings and their vassals were leaving their lives and realms unprotected because of the joy of the Christian name, the king of León made war on the king of Castile, as he had done in the time of the previous war. The glorious king desired to end his life with honour and glory in waging war on the Moors, and thus he did not recall what the king of León had done, but rather wanted to settle things on amicable terms with him so that they should provide each other help against the Moors.
26. In the meantime, while discussion was held about peace, around the beginning of the following Lent after the war, the glorious king’s entire intention was focused on this matter of fighting the Moors. And so, accompanied by a few soldiers, he went to the castle of Dominae (now called Calatrava Nueva) with his servants and some of the councils from beyond the Sierra. He captured the castle and kept hold of it. Then he captured Hecnavexore, which is the place now called Saint James, and it is the fort of the brothers of the military order of Saint James next to Montiel.
Then with the help of the few men who were with him, he besieged the noble fort of Alcaraz, which was wondrous. Nonetheless, lord Diaz and some other magnates subsequently came to help the king, and the siege was tightened. The fort was manfully and powerfully assailed with wondrous siege engines. Finally, by the grace of God, the fort was surrendered to the glorious king, while the Moors who were there were spared. On the day of the Ascension, the glorious king was received in the town by the archbishop of Toledo with a solemn procession. This was after purging the town of the filth of the Moors, as the Moors withdrew from the town. On the same day, the archbishop celebrated mass in the town.
Then the noble king also captured another fort that was very well fortified by nature. This fort is located between Secura and Alcoraz and its name is Riopal. Thus, with honour and glory, the king returned around the time of the feast of Pentecost to the regions of Guadalajara. From there he headed to the regions of Vastile, since his sole and greatest desire was to end his last day fighting against the Saracens for the sake of the joy of Jesus Christ’s name. But he saw that the king of León was proving to be a great impediment to his both holy and laudable intention. And so he gave much money to the nobles and great gifts to the magnates, and he summoned an innumerable multitude of the peoples, so that the king of León might at least be terrified by fear and thus sign a peace treaty with the glorious king, and at least not impede him if he did not want to help him against the Moors. And so the peace treaty was signed between the kings through the mediation of Diaz, while Peter Ferdinand was expelled from both kingdoms, and the king of León was required to enter the land of the Moors from his region. This is what happened.
The glorious king feared the king of León’s inconstancy, and so he gave the latter his vassal lord Diaz. Diaz followed the king of León with at least 600 soldiers, and then they assaulted Alcantara and captured it. Fortifying it, they retained control of it. Then they moved their camp towards Mérida. Once the king of León had stayed there for some days, he returned with his army back to his own land with his army, though lord Diaz opposed his doing this and tried to persuade him to pursue the opposite course of action.
The noble vassal of the glorious king saw the inconstancy and cowardliness of the king of León, and he heard that his lord- that is, the glorious king- had besieged Baecia, which had by now been rebuilt with the repair of its walls. The vassal did not want to return to his land without his lord, but rather he crossed the deserted mountains and the rugged areas of woodland between the forts of the Moors, though the Moors were unwilling to let him do this and opposed him. Even so, he reached his lord, the glorious king, by the aforementioned town, where the siege had by now been tightened.
In that time when the king of León (or rather, lord Diaz) captured Alcantara,[lxi] the glorious and noble king had recently got up from his sickbed, on account of which he had reached the gates of death. Although the king could not ride a horse in any way by himself without the assistance of someone to rely on, he came to Toledo, and having a very firm intention to end his life while waging war in the land of the Moors, he besieged the aforementioned town of Baecia, having with him a few nobles and a few men from the peoples of the cities and other towns. This took place at the beginning of December, and the siege lasted until the feast of Purification.[lxii] Since the army came to lack supplies and other necessities, the noble king was forced to break off the siege and return to his land. Indeed there was such a lack of food on that expedition that horse and donkey meat was sold at the meat-market for a very high price. Indeed in that year there was such great famine in the kingdom of Castile, particularly beyond the Sierra and in Extremadura, as had never been seen nor heard of in those lands since ancient times. People were dying en masse, such that there was hardly anyone who could bury the dead.
Then a truce was signed between the Moroccan king and the noble king of Castile. Indeed few horses and some other cattle remained in the kingdom of Castile, and a large proportion of people had perished after wasting away because of starvation. On the contrary, the Moors had a large abundance of horses, corn, barley, olive-oil and various other kinds of foods. Thus the land grew silent and the king rested, and on the following Lent he returned to Castile, where he stayed until the beginning of the following September.
27. In that same period, King Peter of Aragon left his land with a multitude of soldiers and set out to the regions of Toulouse to help the senior count of Toulouse, who had married the king’s sister, and whose son had similarly married the other sister of the king. At that time the Franks were in the regions of Toulouse and held almost all the viscounty of Biterris and the majority of the county of Toulouse.
The Roman Pope Innocent III[lxiii] had granted a general remission of all sins for all those who would come to fight against the Albigensians and other heretics who were in those regions. For the various heresies had sprung up, having different faces and tails that were bound together, and they multiplied each day, such that it was difficult for the church to ignore these things any longer. Therefore the Catholics came from various regions, and in particular the kingdom of Francia, and in a short period of time brought almost the entire land under the yoke of Christ’s faith, destroying in a flash of the moment the many forts and very well-fortified cities that were seemingly unassailable. They also afflicted the heretics with various punishments and killed them in various ways. The power of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the king of kings and the lord of lords, was manifestly and miraculously at work through the ministry of the very illustrious and faithful Count Simon Monteforte, who, like another Judas Maccabeus,[lxiv] zealously upheld God’s law and manfully and powerfully waged the Lord’s wars.
At a certain fort, Count Simon Monteforte, who had around 500 soldiers with him, was besieged by the king of Aragon, the count of Toulouse and other counts with them, as well as the barons and nobles of the lord and many people. They were firmly confident that they could capture the fort. But Count Simon was a strenuous and bellicose man, and his heart had strong trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, for whom he toiled everyday. Since he saw that there was imminent danger to him and his men, he and his men came out from their camp with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ and launched an attack on the enemy camp and routed the enemy by the power of the Cross. They also killed the king of Aragon and many of his soldiers. That king would have been very fortunate had he come to the end of his life immediately after the noble triumph of the battle fought at Las Navas de Tolosa against the Moroccan king.
28. Around the beginning of Septemnber, the glorious and noble king of Castile left Burgos and began to set out to Extremadura. For he had intended to hold a meeting with the king of Portugal (his son-in-law) in the regions of Placentia.
When the king was at Valis Oleti, a messenger unexpectedly came, who reported to him the death of his very noble and faithful vassal Lord Diaz, about whose death he consolably grieved. For the king oved him and trusted him over all other men. Since the king already saw that the risk of death was imminent for him because he was by now very weak, worn out with old-age and worn down by many labours and griefs, he had decided to entrust his kingdom, his pre-pubescent son, his wife and his daughters to the trust of the aforementioned noble and faithful vassal, and place everything in his hand and power, since he was wholly confident that his vassal would faithfully manage everything and hurry to pay all the king’s debts that the king owed to many. But now that the glorious king was on the verge of death and thwarted in his such great hope, he grieved very much. A few days earlier he had heard that Peter Ferdinand of Castile had died in the regions of Marrakesh. The noble king persecuted that man as though the latter were a mortal enemy. Joys follow sad things and sad things follow joys in alternation, such that no one can boast that he is happy while he exists in this present life.
But taking up his spirit again, the glorious king went forth, and when he reached a certain village between Arevalo and Avila that is called Guterrius Munio, he gradually began to fail and around midnight, with a few of his intimates by his side, he went the way of all flesh.[lxv] His noble wife was at the time struggling with a quartan ague.
May a dark whirlwind take hold of that night, and may the stars of the sky not illuminate it, for it dared to deprive the world of such a great Sun. He was the flower of the kingdom, the splendour of this world, outstanding for his entirely good manners, just, prudent, strenuous and generous. In no way did he bring blemish on his glory. He passed away on the eighth day after the feast of Saint Michael. Lord Diaz had passed away around the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.[lxvi] Castile has a cause of perpetual grief, as long as this world endures, as it has been deprived at one and the same time of such a great lord and king and his such famous vassal who was such a great man.
Those who were with the king at that time (namely, the king’s wife and daughter, the archbishop of Toledo, the bishop of Palencia and other nobles) hurried to bring his corpse, which was now deprived of life, to the royal monastery. The king had newly built this monastery next to Burgos, financing the construction at his own expense. When the peoples of the cities and the nobles heard of the death of their such great lord, they rushed together to the site, and when they saw that they had been deprived of such a great king, they became numb, wailing within as their spirit was troubled. All the women took up acts of lamentation, while the men, bound with hair-shirts and wearing sack-cloths, sprinkled their heads with dust. All the glory of Castile was suddenly changed, seemingly in the blink of an eye.
Once the glorious king’s body was handed over magnificently and honorifically for burial, his noble wife, Queen Mistress Eleanor, now deprived of the consolation of such a great husband, wished to die because of the pain and anguish of her spirit. She thus immediately fell on the sick-bed, and around midnight on All-Saints Vigil,[lxvii] she followed her husband and ended her final day. She was buried next to the king in the aforementioned monastery. The same burial place preserves the two of them, who had been brought together by one mind and adorned by noble manners.
The glorious and noble king was an infant of around three years old when he began to reign. He reigned for a little more than 50 years. He died in era 1252.[lxviii]
29. Around the 30th year of his reign, the holy city of Jerusalem and the entire Holy Land were captured, with the exception of Tyre (commonly called Sur) and Tripoli, which is located in the region of Antioch. Saladin, the sultan of Damascus and Babylonia, fought against the king of Jerusalem, the Knights Hospitaller and Knights Templar, and by the permission of divine justice, he defeated them. He killed many of them and captured others, and then captured the entire land except for the aforementioned cities, and he took captive the Holy Cross of the Lord, which had been captured in that war.
When the entire Christian people heard about this, they grieved very much, and the Roman Pope sent his preachers to all the Christian people’s leaders, in order to invite them to liberate the Holy Land. The Roman emperor Frederick took up the sign of the Cross. All the leaders of Germany followed him. With a countless multitude of soldiers and other warriors, he crossed through Hungary, then Bulgaria, and then through Romania. He reached the land of the sultan of Iconium, which is next to the land of the ruler of Antioch. He overcame and wore out all who had wanted to prevent him and his father from crossing through.
But as rumour has reported, he had a firm intention of first going to Damascus and Babylonia and destroying the entire realm of Saladin and placing it under the yoke of the Christians. From there he intended to come to the Holy Land and holy city of Jerusalem with glory and honour. While the earthly emperor planned this, a different plan was made by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, in whose hand are all powers and all rights of kingdoms. For when he was in the territory of the people of Iconium, heading in the direction of Antioch, he wanted to bathe in a small river since the weather was hot. He thus descended into the war and suddenly suffocated there. Behold the judgements of God are a great abyss. Some of his army died, while the remaining part headed to the places that the Christians still held within the territory of the Holy Land.
30. In the same period, after King Philip of Francia and King Richard of England had agreed and signed a peace treaty with each other, they crossed the sea with dukes, counts and other barons as well as many soldiers. They sailed to Acre, which the Saracens held at the time. The kings besieged it and powerfully and manfully assailed it and thus captured it by means of force.[lxix] Before King Richard came there, he captured the island of Cyprus and brought it under the yoke of his rule.
King Philip was seized by a very grave illness, such that he despaired for his life, and thus he sailed the sea and returned to his land. But the strenuous and magnanimous King Richard remained and stayed for a long time in those regions, defending what the Christians held and newly acquiring other places. But when he heard that the king of Francia wanted to make war on him, he sailed the sea, and while he was passing through the land of the duke of Austria (commonly called Osterreich), he was captured by the duke and held for a long time in captivity. Finally, after paying 100,000 silver marks in exchange for being freed, he returned to his land. When he besieged a certain fort, he was lethally wounded by an arrow and paid his debt to nature, as has been said.
In around the 40th year of the glorious king’s reign, the count of Flanders, the count of Blesse, and other barons of the kingdom of Francia sent a delegation requesting the lord of Monteferrato, whom they had appointed to be their leader and had promised to obey as their lord. Indeed, they had agreed among themselves to go beyond the sea in order to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
So all of them gathered at Venice, and after staying there for a long time because of the malice and trickery of the Venetians, Emperor Alexius of Constantinople[lxx] came to them. Alexius was the son of Emperor Isaac, who had killed the very well-known traitor Andronicus[lxxi] (as reports say), for Andronicus, by means of violence and betrayal, had usurped the empire of Constantinople for himself after the death of Emperor Emmanuel. Emperor Isaac was the maternal grandfather of our Queen Mistress Beatrix.
Alexius came bearing a pitiful complaint about his subjects, who had unjustly deprived him of his power. He begged the gathered men to deign to help him on the basis of compassion. He said that if he could recover his power through their help, he would very generously provide the Franks and Lombards everything they needed to help the Holy Land. Overcome by compassion and driven by their own poverty, they followed him. Out of fear of them, the people of Constantinople welcomed their lord, outwardly feigning loyalty while their hearts were full of trickery. While the Franks and Lombards withdrew and sailed towards the Holy Land (though they complained that the Emperor Alexius did not recompense them as he had promised), the people of Constantinople turned against their lord Emperor Alexius, and deprived him of subjection to him and the promised and due obedience to him.
When Alexius saw the wickedness of his subjects, he sent his messengers after the Franks and Lombards in order to recall them. This is what happened. So the Franks and Lombards came and landed next to the city of Constantinople. They were very few in number relative to the multitude of Constantinople’s people. But when the Lord is willing, He is capable of bringing about triumph with a few men just as He can do with many.[lxxii] So helped by divine grace, without which they could do nothing, they entered the city by force, and killing many of the place’s inhabitants left and right, they took control of the city and plundered its countless spoils: gold, silver, precious stones, silk garments, various kinds of ornaments.[lxxiii] Constantinople possessed a greater abundance of all these things than all the other cities in the world did. Count Baldwin of Flanders was elected as emperor. The lord of Monteferrato became king in Salonica. A certain Venetian was elected as patriarch: I saw him being consecrated at Saint Peter’s Church in Rome by the hand of lord Innocent III.
From that time onwards the Latins had control of Constantinople and the church of Constantinople obeyed the church of Rome, whose patriarch (not the aforementioned one but his successor) I saw at the Lateran Council convened under Innocent III. This council was held a year after the death of the glorious king. 420 bishops, 62 archbishops, and the patriarchs of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Aquila and Grando participated in this council. The abbots, priors and those who were outstanding with other ranks of dignity could not be counted. This council took place on the Feast of All Saints, and on the Ides of the following month, lord Innocent III, a good man whose deeds were hastened by God, went the way of all flesh.
31. After the glorious king’s death, and while his wife was still alive albeit suffering from the illness from which she died, the king’s son Enrique was elevated to be king and accepted by all the Castilians and prelates of the churches and peoples of the cities. They paid homage to him by hand. He was a boy of good nature, but he had not yet reached the age of 12.
While Queen Mistress Eleanor was struggling in the last days of her life, she entrusted her son King Enrique and the kingdom to her daughter Queen Mistress Berengaria. After her mother’s death, Queen Mistress Berengaria kept her brother Enrique under her guardianship and managed the affairs of the kingdom with the archbishop of Toledo and the bishop of Palencia for three months or a little more than that.
But some indignant magnates began to scheme and find some pretexts through which they could take the boy-king away from the power and care of his sister and the prelates, and thus dominate the kingdom as they wished. Thus it came to pass that a majority of the barons agreed on Alvaro Nunius to be the king’s guardian and manage the affairs of the kingdom. Thus, Queen Mistress Berengaria was somehow induced to allow Alvaro Nunius to keep hold of the king and kingdom, such nonetheless that the counsel and will of the queen mistress would be required in all serious and major matters, with nothing taking place without her will. Alvaro Nunius swore all this and on top of that he paid homage to the queen mistress. He himself would come to see whether he would keep hold of this.
32. Not many days after the king was brought away from the queen’s power, a division arose among the kingdom’s barons, as some followed Alvaro Nunius (namely Goncalvus Roderic, his brothers and many others), while others made a very firm pact with each other to fight against Alvaro Nunius and his followers.
Not much later, Alvaro Nunius became a count. Subsequently, Goncalvus became a count. The kingdom’s status was deteriorating on a daily basis, and it was not management of the kingdom that was being brought about by all, but rather its desolation. Count Alvaro Nunius, induced by the counsel of some, had a discussion about arranging a de facto marriage (since it was not possible de jure) between Mistress Mafalda, the king of Portugal’s daughter, and King Enrique of Castile. This took place. At that time there was very deep enmity between Count Alvaro and Lupus Diaz and Roderic Diaz de Camberos. Count Alvaro arranged with his brothers for King Enrique to make war on these nobles. This is what happened.
At the same time, when the king and queen were at Miranda, they were separated from each other by order of the lord Pope Innocent. Then some pact, feigned and not for real, was struck between Count Alvaro, his accomplices and other nobles.
Later, around the feast of the Assumption, when all the magnates gathered at Vallis Oleti so that they could discuss arranging a peace treaty, a new dispute arose among them, and then Gonzalvus Roderic, his brothers, all who were bound to follow him, and Alfonso Tellus and his brother withdrew from Count Alvaro. They all adhered to Queen Mistress Berengaria. Similarly, Lupus Diaz, Roderic Diaz, Alvaro Diaz and John Goncalvus and all these men formed a confederation with each other to oppose Count Alvaro, his brothers and other relatives of his who supported him. Thus, such great dissent and discord arose and were solidified between the aforementioned parties, such as there never was before in Castile.
Therefore Count Alvaro withdrew to the region of Toledo out of fear, and while he was crossing through Extremadura, he won over the minds of the senior officials who were in the cities and villages there, and he bound them to him with an indissoluble bond. With their support, almost all of Extremadura and the land beyond the Sierra supported him.
Thus, during the following winter, when Queen Mistress Berengaria sent one of her servants to her brother so that she could check on his status and health, some agents who were with Count Alvaro, through the trickery of the very evil vessel Satan, contrived some diabolical lie. They composed a cursed letter, which they said they had found with the queen’s messenger. Through this letter, they strove to prove that the queen mistress had conspired with Goncalvus Roderic, Alfonso Tellus and some other magnates to bring about her brother’s death. They contrived this scheme so that they could make the king hate all these people- something that they had tried to do before in many different ways, but had never been able to accomplish.
Therefore, on this pretext, they hanged the queen’s messenger on a fork-shaped yoke, thereby wishing to denigrate the reputation of the queen mistress and the nobles who adhered to her. But the just Lord has loved justices.[lxxiv] His face has seen fairness, He saves the innocent and blameless, and He liberated Susana from the unjust judges’ hands. He freed the queen mistress (who was innocent of such a great crime and had nothing to do with it) and those who supported her from anxiety and exalted them in the time of tribulation. When the queen heard of the messenger’s death and understood the diabolical scheming, and realised that these schemers were threatening to bring insult and disgrace upon her and her sister who was with her, she withdrew from her father’s monastery where she was staying with her sister, and went to the castle of Goncalvus Roderic, called Aotiello. The nobleman very kindly received the queen and her sister, and humbly and devotedly served them, putting himself and his men at their service as long as they stayed there. This was so until King Enrique’s death.
As for Count Alvaro and his men, they came with the king to Vallis Oleti on the following Lent and then after Easter they left with their soldiers and the Extremadurans who supported them. In the valley of Trigueros, they began to ravage all of the property of Goncalvus Roderic and his brothers and others who supported them, setting fire to their homes and cruelly destroying their other property. Then they came to the fort called Mont Alegre and besieged it. Inside was Suerus Tellus, who, seeing the king, surrendered his fort to him. Subsequently they crossed through the Tierra de Campis, and reached Carrion, where they stayed for some days.
Then they returned to Villa Alva del Alcor, and coming by night, they very severely wounded Alfonso Tellus and seized his horses and arms. Through the protection of divine mercy, Alfonso escaped their hands and withdrew to his own land, which Count Alvaro besieged with the king and his supporters. Alvaro kept it under siege for many days, but they could not capture it. Breaking off the siege, they came to Palencia.
Queen Mistress Berengaria and all who supported her were in Aotiello, Castro Cisneros and other neighbouring towns. They were all in a state of such great anxiety that they did not know what to do. Nonetheless they had decided to surrender their land to the king unless they could somehow make an alternative arrangement with Count Alvaro: this seemed to be impossible, or at least difficult.
While King Enrique was playing in Palencia as usual with the noble boys who followed him, one of them threw a stone and gravely wounded the king on his head. Owing to this wound, the king came to the end of his life within the space of a few days. Count Alvaro and his men removed his body from Palencia and placed it in a tower at the fort called Tariego. Thus, King Enrique died before the years of puberty. This was in the month of June,[lxxv] before he had completed the third year of his reign.
33. After hearing of the death of her brother that had not yet been publicised, Queen Mistress Berengaria immediately sent her messengers, nobleman and powerful men- namely Lupus Diaz and Goncalvus Roderic- to the king of León, who was at the time at Toro, so that through whatever pretext and whatever skill they should lead her eldest son (lord Ferdinand,[lxxvi] who was with his father at the time) away from his father’s care and bring him to her. For she intended to give her eldest son her father’s kingdom- an intention that later became truly apparent. The realm belonged to the queen by virtue of the fact that she was older than her other sisters, with no surviving male son of King Alfonso. It was also declared that this had been the will of the glorious king, as expressed in a certain letter that had his lead seal and had been made at the assembly held at Carrion. This letter was found in the chest of the church of Burgos.
The aforementioned nobles, approaching the king of León, devised a useful pretence through which they obtained their wish, and very quickly brought the boy to his mother, who was still staying at Aotielo. Indeed this was a useful pretence for the Castilians, for if progress had not been made so prudently, they might not have their own king today.
So with the plan initiated, the queen and the magnates with her came to Palencia, where the mother and son were honorifically received with a solemn procession by the bishop, namely lord Tellius, who was at the time in charge of the church of Palencia. Then they came to the fort called Donnas and captured it by force. Then the magnates who were with the queen, held a meeting with Count Alvaro, hoping that they could reconcile him with the queen, so that the realm could thus be pacified. But nothing was accomplished. The queen came with her men to Vallis Oleti, where she was honorifically received. Then, after a diligent discussion was held, all decided to cross the Duero and enter Extremadura.
34. Wanting to go to Segovia, the queen and her men came to Cuenca. That place’s inhabitants did not want to receive them in the town. In the same place it was intimated to them that neither the Segovians nor other Extremadurans would receive them. Moreover it was insinuated to them that, unless they were on guard, Sancho Ferdinand, the king of León’s brother, would pursue them with a multitude of soldiers in order to harm them and capture them if he could. So the queen and her men turned back with much haste and came to Vallis Oleti, from where they had left. However, in order to discuss the change of king, they sent messengers to Segovia where the Extremadurans and those who were from beyond the Sierra were gathered. Coming to Segovia, the queen and her men found these people gathered and through their own efforts and those of their friends, they persuaded these people to meet with them again at Vallis Oleti for the purpose of having a discussion about the replacement of king. This is what happened.
After the queen and her men left Duennas, Count Alvaro personally approached the king of León. He made many promises to the king that he could not however fulfil by the grace of God, and induced the king to assemble his army and enter the kingdom of Castile and thus acquire either the entirety of the kingdom or at least a great part of it, since it was empty. So the king of León acquiesced to the count’s advice, and assembled an army and thus captured Villa García, then Coroña and Castromont. He came to a town that lies between Vallis Oleti and Sietmancas and is called Arroyo. He pitched camp there.
35. But Castile then had a king: namely, lord Ferdinand, the son of mistress Berengaria. For the Extremadurans and those who were from beyond the Sierra gathered at Vallis Oleti on 2 July, which was the third day before the king of León had come to Arroyo. They held a discussion about replacing the king, and although various people had various sentiments, eventually the One through whom kings reign and leaders rule, did not want to leave Castile devoid of the consolation of its own king, and wanted to suppress the stupid arrogance and elation of the king of León. Thus He returned those who were at odds with each other to a state of harmony.
Thus, the Extremadurans and others who had gathered outside the gate of Vallis Oleti in a field, came to the market-place, and requested Queen Mistress Berengaria to come out with her children to the aforementioned place, for there was such a great multitude of peoples that the king’s palace could not accommodate them. And so the noble queen came out with her children Ferdinand and Alfonso, as well as the bishops of Burgos, Palencia and other religious men and barons who supported her. She came to the place where the multitude of peoples were awaiting her arrival. One of them, speaking on behalf of all who agreed on this matter, acknowledged in the name of these peoples that the realm of Castile was owed to Queen Mistress Berengaria and that all recognised her as mistress and queen of the realm of Castile. Nonetheless, all unanimously requested that she should grant the realm, which was hers by right of propriety, to her elder son, namely lord Ferdinand, on the basis that since she was a woman, she could not bear the labours of managing the realm.
Seeing what she had ardently desired, she gladly agreed to the requests and granted her son the kingdom. It was shouted by all in a loud voice: Long live the king! Then with great joy they all came to the church of Saint Mary, and giving thanks to God there, all who were present- both the magnates and the common people of the cities and other towns- paid homage by hand to the king lord Ferdinand, and thus his mother returned with honour and great joy to her father’s palace. Lord King Ferdinand had just turned 16 years old.[lxxvii]
36. After this, the queen and those with her heard of the king of León’s arrival in the aforementioned town of Arroyo, and thus they sent two bishops to him (namely, those of Burgos and Abula), requesting him to stop causing worry for his son who was now king of Castile. But the king of León did not want to accept their entreaties, but rather he was made haughty by the wind of inane glory that he had conceived (as was said) about wielding power. Thus he passed through Pisorga and came to Laguna, where he stayed for some days. Then he went on his way towards Burgos, and ravaging the land on all sides, he reached Arcos, intending to approach Burgos, and having hope (albeit vain) that he could capture it. In those days Lupus Diaz was at Burgos, and many nobles and strenuous Castilians were with him. They were prepared to put their lives on the line to protect the city if necessary. When the king of León saw that he had conceived vain hope and that he was toiling for no benefit, he returned to his land by another route.
The queen, her son the king and her vassals were in Palencia at that time. 50 soldiers of Abula, well prepared by their council, came to this place with their banner. Similarly, 50 Segovian soldiers came. This was for the purpose of serving the king and queen.
When the king of León returned to his land, the king and queen came out from Palencia with their men, proceeding towards Burgos. They sent two bishops- namely Maurice of Burgos and Tellius of Palencia- to the fort called Tariego, together with other religious men, so that they should remove King Enrique’s body from that place for the purpose of burying it with his parents. For Count Alvaro had already ordered for Enrique’s body to be given to his sister the queen mistress. This is what happened. Then the queen and her men came to Palencia, where they were well received. From there they set out to the fort called Munno, which they immediately besieged, staying there with the king.
37. The queen, bishops and other religious men had her brother’s body brought to her father’s monastery and buried there with honours. Then the queen returned to the fort of Munno, which her vassals assailed in a powerful and manly manner and managed to capture by force, taking captive and leading out the soldiers who were there. Then they advanced and captured Lerma (subsequently called Lara), and from there they returned to Burgos. Then the king and queen were received in the city with a solemn procession that was held with great honour and boundless joy. For in a seemingly miraculous way, the Lord God had liberated the city of Burgos from the hands of its enemies, and restored it to its true and natural mistress. Here the queen mistress gave whatever she could to her soldiers, for by now she had already spent whatever gold and silver her father had left her at the end of his life.
Then on the advice of Lupus Diaz, they set out to Belli Foramen and Najera, where they were received by the peoples of these towns, but they could not take hold of these fortifications because they were held by Count Goncalvus Nunius’ soldiers. So they returned to Burgos.
38. While they were staying there, Count Alvaro, his brothers and all his supporters assembled a multitude of soldiers and crossed through Ortadaios. From there they passed through Quintana Fortuno, and then they passed by Rio Cereso and came to Villa Franca. Rising from there, they assaulted Bilforado in the morning and entered it and forcibly took all the property they could find. They killed some of its inhabitants, wounded others, and led away others as captives. Thus the aforementioned town was brought to a state of ruin and desolation. They spared no person or age group. Then they headed back with victory and much plunder, and each person went away to his own place.
The king, his mother the queen and those who adhered to them heard what the counts and their accomplices had done in the town. Touched with vehement grief inside, they wailed. But the Most High, who is the patient restorer, saw the evil that had been done, and so from His position of glory on High, He exacted an admirable vengeance for all ages against Count Alvaro and his supporters. For on the tenth day (i.e. Wednesday of the four periods of September), when the king, queen and some magnates were leaving Palenciola in order to go towards Palencia, they passed by near Ferreruela, where Count Alvaro was. They saw him outside the town among the vineyards, where he could see them passing by.
Seeing him, Alfonso Tellus, upon whom he had brought many evil disgraces, told his brother and others who were following him (for they were ahead of the king and queen, armed and prepared for battle): “Look, there is Count Alvaro. Come, let us fight him.” So they drew up their battle-line against him. When he saw this, he wanted to enter the town with his men, and when he was the last one remaining (for his men who followed him had entered the town), Alfonso Tellus and his men approached him, apprehended him, and threw him down from his horse into the mud (for it had rained then), and they brought the captive, mired in mud as he was, before the queen mistress. When the queen mistress saw her arch enemy, who had brought so many and such great evils upon the queen and those who loved her, she gave as much thanks as she could to the Most High because of this such great benefit He had brought her.
Then they came to Palencia, and from there set out to Vallis Oleti, dragging with them the captive Count Alvaro, and they kept him wholly restrained. After he was held there for some days and following a lengthy negotiation, in exchange for his freedom he gave the king and queen all the forts that he and all the others who supported him had, with the exception of Castro Soriz and Orzeion- the two forts being held by his brother Count Ferdinand. As part of the agreement, Alvaro was required to help the king with 100 soldiers in order to fight against Ferdinand until the king should recover these forts, unless Alvaro’s brother was willing to hand the forts back to the king. These were the forts that the king recovered in exchange for freeing Count Alvaro. Beyond the Sierra: Alarcon and Canent. Within the confines of the Duero: Tariego, Amaya, Villafranca, Cereso, Pancorvo, Turris Belli Foraminis and some others, and Najera, which was captured by Lupus Diaz. Count Alvaro was under Goncalvus Roderics power until these places were given to the king, after which Alvaro was permitted to depart as a free man.
Subsequently, the king and queen came to Castro Soriz in order to fight against Count Ferdinand, who was preparing to rebel there. For Ferdinand had many soldiers with him. In Molla de Castro, Ferdinand had prepared wheat, barley and wine, as well as meat and other necessities so that he and those men with him could hold out for a long time. Nonetheless, persuaded by sounder advice, he received the king and lord, and handed back the forts he held. He then immediately received them back from the king’s hand, and became the latter’s vassal.
Thus, through the action of divine mercy, within six months the turmoil of the realm of Castile, which some hoped would last forever, receded. With the help of his mother, the king began to exercise a king’s duties in all the regions of his kingdom.
39. In the following summer, Count Alvaro and his brothers and accomplices, seeing that they had been expelled from the realm, withdrew to the town called Valdenebro, where they prepared to rebel again. But the king came with his mother and a multitude of soldiers to Medina de Rivo Seco. Not many days later, it came to pass that the count and those with him abandoned the aforementioned town and joined the king of León. Persuaded by their counsel, the king of León made war on his son. Eventually, after the king of León imposed a siege for several days at Castreio (a village of Medina), peace was struck between the father and son through the mediation of some magnates of the realm of Castile.
When the counts and those with them saw that they had become destitute of the counsel and help of both the king of León and the king of Castile, they felt grief as they did not know where to go and what they should do. Then Count Alvaro fell on the sick bed at Toro, and despairing for his life, he undertook the habit and order of the brothers of the military order of Saint James, and thus he died and was buried in Uclés. Count Ferdinand sailed across the sea and approached the Moroccan king with some of his vassals and blood relatives. After staying with the Moroccan king for some time, he eventually died in Marrakesh, as did some others who had followed him. The count’s body was brought from there and buried in the church of Hospital Pontis de Fitero.
40. In the second year, Queen Mistress Berengaria, whose entire intention and greatest desire were to procure honour for her son in every way possible, began to think about looking for a wife for her son. But while different people had different opinions, the queen decided that she should seek to marry him to the girl who seemed to her to surpass other girls in noble descent throughout all of Christendom.
At that time in Germany there was a very noble and very beautiful girl, who was also decent in manners for such an age. She was the daughter of King Philip of Germany who had been elected as emperor of the Romans. He was the son of Frederick the Great, the emperor of the Romans. The girl’s mother had been the daughter of Emperor Isaac of Constantinople. Thus the girl was the granddaughter of two emperors who are considered rather great and outstanding in the entire world.
So after receiving the letter of the king of Germany (the future emperor of the Romans) about the need to send more solemn messengers to take the girl mistress with them, the queen mistress sent Bishop Mauricius of Burgos, Peter Ovarius (the prior of the Hospital and abbot of Saint Peter de Asilancia), the commendatarius[lxxviii] of Carrion, and García Goncalvus who was the master of the order of Uclés (i.e. the military order of Saint James). They were to follow the other messengers whom she had first sent to the regions of Germany for this matter. They approached the king of Germany and were honorifically received by him. Once they had stayed in Germany for almost four months, they at last got their wish, and after many dangers of such a long route, they brought the very noble and beautiful girl mistress safe and sound to Queen Mistress Berengaria, who, with a noble company of religious men and mistresses, met the messengers and the girl mistress beyond Victoria. From there they came to Burgos where the king was with his magnates and many other nobles and leading men of the cities and towns of his realm. The girl mistress and the messengers were received by the king with great honour and joy.
On the third day before the feast day of Saint Andrew, in the royal monastery that had been built by his grandfather and grandmother, King Ferdinand received, by his own authority, a military sword from the altar as a sign of military service. The sword had first been blessed with other weapons by Bishop Mauricius of Burgos, with a mass having first been solemnly celebrated by the bishop in the same place. So great joy arose in the city of Burgos on that day.
After the third day, that is on the feast day of Saint Andrew,[lxxix] King Lord Ferdinand solemnly married the very noble girl-mistress, Queen Mistress Beatrix, in the church of Saint Mary of Burgos. This was officiated by Bishop Mauricius of Burgos, and the king received the priestly blessing with her.
Then following the summoning of a multitude of magnates, soldiers and leading men of the cities, a very distinguished assembly was held at Burgos. All the more noble religious and secular mistresses who were in the realm of Castile were in attendance with Queen Mistress Berengaria in that assembly. Such an assembly had not been seen in Burgos since the days of old.
41. As time went on, although Roderic Diaz de Camberos wanted to rebel against the king, he eventually handed his land over to the king, receiving a sum of money in exchange. For Roderic wanted to go to help the Holy Land. Indeed he had been marked with the Cross many days before.
A year later, Goncalvus Peter de Molina, induced by less sound counsel, began to ravage the region of the realm next to Molina[lxxx] and engage in plundering there, doing so with the help of his supporters. With the help of his very distinguished mother, the king assembled his vassals and went to attack Molina and devastated the entire land of the lord of Molina. Eventually, the king besieged the fort of Zafra,[lxxxi] and once the siege was tightened, Goncalvus Peter saw that he could not resist the king’s power, and so he recognised the king as his lord and the king’s right to whatever his grandfather- the very distinguished King Lord Alfonso- had possessed in Molina. In addition, as is said, Goncalvus recognised the king’s right to something more than this.
42. In the seventh year of the rule of King Lord Ferdinand, King John of Jerusalem travelled to Saint James and came with the intention of marrying one of the king of León’s daughters, with whom the kingdom of León had been promised to him. Nonetheless, the king of León first sent his messengers to Queen Mistress Berengaria and his son King Ferdinand, requesting them to allow him to see them. At the time they were in Toledo. The king and queen agreed to this, and thus the king of León approached Toledo and was honorifically received by the king and queen. He held a discussion with them about the marriage of the queen’s daughter and the king’s sister.
Queen Mistress Berengaria took precaution with regards to the future. As a prudent woman, she foresaw the obstacle that the king of Jerusalem could bring upon her son King Lord Ferdinand in terms of the legal right that Ferdinand possessed in the realm of León, if the king of Jerusalem were to marry another of the daughters of the king of León whom he had begotten from Queen Mistress Tharasia, and if he were to remain in the kingdom. Thus she preferred to give the king of Jerusalem her own daughter called Berengaria to be his wife.
The queen made her promise, and fulfilled the promise on the return of the king from his pilgrimage. But the king was a man of great prudence, strenuous in use of arms, and powerful in his deeds and words. King Ferdinand, his mother (the queen) and the king’s wife led the king of Jerusalem and his wife to Lucronium. They gave the king of Jerusalem and his wife abundant gifts and commended them to the grace of God. Then they returned to Burgos.
43. After the feast day of Pentecost was solemnly celebrated at Burgos in era 1262,[lxxxii] the king withdrew to a place called Munno. At that time Lupus Diaz, Goncalvus Roderic, Alfonso Tellus, Roderic Roderic and almost all the kingdom’s magnates were in the king’s assembly.
One day, when the Spirit of the Lord rushed into the king in the presence of his very noble mother with all the magnates standing around, he unexpectedly gave this sort of speech in a humble and devoted way, as though he were the son of obedience:
“Oh very dear mother and sweet mistress, of what benefit is this kingdom of Castile to me, which you generously gave up even as it was due to you by law, and was granted to me? Of what benefit is my very noble wife, who was brought from far away regions through your concern and diligence and was married off to me with indescribable honour? Of what benefit is the fact that you anticipate my desires through your maternal sweetness and bring them to the fulfilment in a very distinguished way before they have been plainly conceived by me, if I grow languid through idleness, if the flower of my youth vanishes without bearing fruit, if the light of regal glory, which had already seemingly begun to emit beams, is extinguished and annihilated by itself? Behold the omnipotent God reveals the time in which, unless I should wish to pretend to be seemingly cowardly and indolent, I can serve the Lord Jesus Christ (through whom the kings reign) against the enemies of the Christian faith for the sake of the honour and glory of his name. Indeed the gate has been opened and the way is clear. Peace has been restored to us in our kingdom. The discord and staunch enmities between the Moors: new sects and quarrels have arisen. Christ- God and man- is on our side. On the Moors’ side is the infidel and damned apostate Muḥammad. So what remains? Oh very merciful mother, on account of whom, after God, I hold whatever I have, I ask that it should be pleasing to you that I should make war on the Moors.”
After saying these words, the king, whose heart had been kindled and inflamed by the Lord’s Spirit, fell silent. All the barons who adhere to him were dumbstruck and almost all were filled with great joy, as they saw the king’s enthusiasm and glorious intention.
44. Since the noble queen saw that her son’s heart was inflamed and lit with such noble desire, she spoke to her son with a few words, as was her habit:
“My very sweet son, you are my glory and my joy. I have always sincerely desired for you to be happy and successful, and I have arranged this as far as I have been able. Your vassals stand before you, your assembly participates. Let them give us their advice as they understand the situation, and you should follow their counsel in this course of action.”
On the desire of the magnates, the king withdrew elsewhere for a short time. The magnates remained with the noble queen, and after having a small discussion and deliberation, they all agreed on the same opinion: that the king should make war on the Saracens by all means possible. When the king realised his mother’s will and heard the magnates’ response, he rejoiced in the Lord to a degree beyond what is believable.
Without delay, the commendator of Uclés was sent to the archbishop of Toledo and the master of Calatrava who were located beyond the Sierra, so that the two should lay aside all delay and excuse and come personally to the king at Carrion, where the king was intending to hold an assembly regarding this course of action. Thus, at the beginning of the month of July, the king entered Carrion, where he held a discussion with his noble mother, the archbishop of Toledo, the bishop of Burgos and all the magnates of the kingdom. The plan to make war on the Saracens was affirmed.
So the king ordered all the magnates and his other vassals and the masters of the orders to go to Toledo at the beginning of this September, prepared to enter the land of the Saracens with him. Like a roaring lion, and having seemingly got his wish, the king crossed through Extremadura, and entered Toledo around the feast day of the Assumption of the Blessed Mary.
His barons, the archbishop and the brothers of the Orders gathered to him. On the following September, around the feast day of Saint Michael, they moved their camp towards the Moors. Passing through Puerto de Muradal, they went on their way towards the town called Quesada. Reaching this town, they invaded it, seemingly in the blink of a moment, and they found it filled with riches and thus stripped it of all its property. They levelled the walls to the ground, took the men, women, elders and infants as captives. Here, such a large multitude of people was found that one could hardly believe such a number to have been found before.
45. In that time, the king of Baecia was loyal to our king. Expelled from his kingdom, namely from Jaén, Ubeda and other towns that belonged to his realm, he stayed in Baecia, for that area alone had remained under his authority. After the death of the Moroccan king,[lxxxiii] who was the son of the one that the very illustrious lord Alfonso- king of Castile- routed in the battle that took place at Las Navas de Tolosa, the Moroccan kingdom did not have a ruler for some days, since the king had not designated any heir to success him in rule, as he left behind only small sons.
Then wishes became divided in the Almohad assembly in Marrakesh. That assembly had indeed flourished for many days until that time. Someone was elected as king, but others who did not like him killed him a few days later. For this reason, such great discord has arisen among the potentates of that land and it has not been possible to calm it down until now, and it still endures: indeed may it last forever! Thus it came to pass that different groups nominated different kings, and each group of them, according to its own wish, wished to have a lord whom it hoped would be favourable to it.
So since that discord arose beyond the sea, it had repercussions in Spain, such that the kin of Murcia was named the Moroccan king, and Seville and the majority of the Saracens’ land on this side of the sea supported him. As for the king of Baecia and his brother who ruled over Valencia and their supporters, they opposed the king of Murcia, since a Moroccan king had already been named. And thus great division arose among the Moors beyond the sea and on this side of the sea, and now one could not speak of a kingdom, as it is agreed that the Moroccan kingdom was tottering, but rather one could speak more accurately of discord.
From this fact, any person can truly recognise what the prophet Daniel said: that the kingdom of men is in God’s hand and He will give it to whomsoever He wills.[lxxxiv] The oracle of the prophet Isaiah was fulfilled: Woe to you who plunder! Surely you will be plundered? And you who scorn, surely you will be scorned? When you finish plundering, you will be plundered.”[lxxxv] al-Mahdī, who was called ʿAbd al-Muʾmin, unjustly deprived the Moabites (his masters) of rule on the basis of the preaching of Ibn Tūmart the philosopher of Baghdad, and he brought the peoples and realms under the yoke of his rule. And so once he finished doing these things, his posterity were deprived of rule in our days, by virtue of the jealous God who brings punishment for the sins of parents upon their third and fourth generation descendants.[lxxxvi] May the Lord’s name be blessed.
46. So the king of Beacia entered into an agreement with our King Ferdinand and handed over his younger son to come with Ferdinand to Castile and so that Ferdinand could have fuller confidence in the king of Beacia.
After our king had completely desolated the town of Quesada, he returned with great joy and much booty to his own land because the winter season was pressing.[lxxxvii] Then the king of Valencia, who was the king of Beacia’s brother, sent our king solemn messengers, asking our king to order him to come to him. For the king of Valencia wanted to see him and desired to serve him in all ways possible. So Aceit of Valencia came to our lord king in the town called Moya, and there he became a vassal of our lord king in the sight of all who were present, and he kissed the king’s hand. A pact was signed between them, which Aceit of Valencia subsequently broke as a vile apostate, induced by no good reason to do so.
In the following year, during era 1263,[lxxxviii] our king returned to Castile. He very generously distributing stipends to the soldiers, distributed a large and strong army, and around the feast day of Saint John, which is the time when kings normally go to war, he passed through Puerto de Muradal with haste, and there the king of Beacia met him, and that king and his sons became his vassals. The king of Beacia inseparably adhered to him until he died.
They moved their camp, and proceeded, directing their eager forces towards Jaén, ravaging the land all around except for what belonged to the king of Beacia’s dominion. So as they approached the noble and famous city of Jaén, they besieged it and assailed it for many days, and they kept all who were in the town shut in, ravaging the gardens, vineyards, trees and standing crops. The face of that noble, flourishing and verdant city was blackened because of the ashes. The earth wasted away, the fields grew squalid, its prior glory fell away. When the king and those with him saw that they could not capture it by force, since the city is very well fortified and defended by nature and human artifice, they moved their camp towards other towns: namely Pego and Loxa, which they captured by force and stripped of all their property. They also killed many thousands of Moors in these places, and took many captive. And thus they moved their camp towards the very noble city called Granada.
They found a certain large and well-fortified town, which was nonetheless emptied of its people because of fear of the king and his army. In this they found much grain and some other things. Retreating, they left that town utterly desolate. They approached the city of Granada, and brought some evils upon the city. But they saw that the army came to lack supplies, and so they decided to return by another route to the land of the Christians, having rendered all the above-mentioned land desolate.
47. So they crossed through Jaén and utterly destroyed whatever had remained untouched in those regions, and thus they reached the river Baetis, which is called the Guadalquivir in Arabic. While all the peoples withdrew to their own lands from that place, the king remained with the nobles, namely the magnates and other soldiers. In accordance with the agreement the king of Baecia had signed with our king, the former gave the latter the noble fort that was well-fortified by nature (namely, Martos) as well as Jaén, Andujar, and some other smaller forts. For he was bound by the pact to give our king all the fortifications that the latter wanted to receive and hold in the land of Moors and which the king of Baecia could also possess.
Then Alvaro Peter, a young nobleman who was the son of Peter Ferdinand and had now withdrawn from alliance with the Moors, became a vassal of our king and received the aforementioned forts from the king’s hand. Subsequently he held and defended them for a long time in a loyal and powerful way. Moreover, at that time, the master and brothers of Calatrava and the commendator and brothers of Uclés and some other nobles remained on that frontier. With the help of the king of Baecia, to whom many soldiers called Alaraves adhered, they all brought many losses upon the Saracens.
Once these arrangements were made, our king returned with joy and great glory to his mother and his wife at Toledo, where they were staying at that time. The aforementioned master, his brothers, the commendator and his brothers, Alvaro Peter and Roderic Roderic and his soldiers came down to the regions of Seville. There they had an encounter with the army of the king of Seville who was acting as Amīr al-Muʾminīn in the vicinity of Seville. They defeated his army and put them to flight from the field, killing many Moors in battle. Then nearly all the towns and forts between Cordoba and Seville switched allegiance to the king of Baecia and accepted him as their lord. Eventually, the noble and famous city of Cordoba accepted him as king and submitted to his rule, with Cordoba’s own king captured and bound in chains. This king of Cordoba was the brother of the king of Seville.
48. In the same period, Alfonso Tellus, a noble soldier, and the bishop of Cuenca and the councils of his bishopric, entered the regions of Murcia. After besieging a certain fort there, they entered into battle with nearly all the Moors on that frontier, who were an innumerable multitude. In this battle, through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, they obtained victory against the Moors, killing many soldiers of the Moors in that battle. The lord of Valencia, called Aceit, had already abandoned our king’s rule and alliance, having broken his pact without good cause.
But our king had a firm and irrevocable intention to destroy that cursed people, since he was driven by the Spirit of God. So around the feast day of All Saints, he wanted to return to those regions in order to visit and console the master of Calatrava and others he had left on that frontier. Almost all his magnates and counsellors opposed his will, not because they wanted to be idle because of cowardice or sloth, but rather because they feared the harsh winter season and inundation of waters- something that could be damaging to the king’s plan for the following summer, since it was feared that because of the few number of soldiers and other men, it would not be possible to do harm to the Moors and the matter would be damaging to the king and his men.
However, the king, into whom the Spirit of the Lord had rushed, was guided by saner counsel, seemingly provided by the Spirit of the Lord. Thus, he laid aside (lest I should say, ‘rejected’) the wishes and counsels of everyone else, and hurriedly left Toledo, and the glorious soldier of Christ began to head towards those regions in the south.
When the king reached those regions, he sent his solemn messengers to give orders to the king of Baecia, who was staying at Cordoba at that time, where he had entered a few days before as its new king and lord. He was ordered to lay aside all other matters of business and come to our king in the regions of Andujar, where our king was. The king of Beacia received the messengers and honoured them with bountiful gifts, and he acquiesced to the order of his lord relaying the orders. He assembled a large multitude of soldiers and infantry and came to our lord king. When that multitude was seen by some of our men, who were noblemen strenuous in use of arms and of great prudence, the latter became very afraid. For they suspected that the perfidy of these people- who saw that desolation was overhanging them- had prepared a trap for the king and his men. However, the king stood unafraid. He met with the king of Beacia, with the latter being his vassal. Making use of his power as one in command, he ordered the king of Beacia to give him the fortifications that he wished to select from the realm of Cordoba that the king of Beacia had newly acquired. This was in accordance with the pact written and signed between them. Then, since the king of Beacia and Cordoba did not have trust in the Moors and had placed all his hope in our king, he promised that he would immediately give him the famous fort of Salvatierra, as well as Boriolamel and Capella. As a sign of his commitment to keeping these promises, he immediately handed over the alcázar[lxxxix] of Baeza to the master of Calatrava, such that if he did not fulfil his promises, the master could hand over the alcázar of Baeza to our king without any evasion or objection.
49. And so our king and the king of Beacia parted ways. Their first agreement had been confirmed, and the forts our king had newly acquired were fortified. In addition, the master of Calatrava was established with the brothers in the alcázar of Baeza. Then our king began to head back to Toledo, and then the fort of Boriolamel was handed over to him.
Much later, a certain Cordoban Moorish nobleman, called Ibn Harach, prudently arranged by order of the king of Baecia that the fort called Salvatierra should be handed over to our king. But the Moors who held the fort rebelled against the king of Baecia and did not want to hand back the fort to him. Thus, as soon as the Moor Ibn Harach took hold of the fort, he handed it to the brothers of Calatrava and our king’s men whom he had designated for this particular purpose. Thus, by the power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, King Ferdinand, whose deeds are guided by the Lord, acquired that famous fort with little effort and in a short period of time. The fort was well-fortified by craftsmanship and nature, and the very illustrious Alfonso could have acquired it for any reason after his glorious triumph, seeing as he had recovered all the other forts that had been lost in those regions during the time of the war of Alarcos and had newly acquired some others beyond Puerto de Muradal.
Our lord king returned to Castile again, distributing stipends to his noble vassals with regal munificence. Around the feast of Pentecost in era 1264,[xc] he left Toledo with an army that was not large. At first, with the help of a few men, he besieged the noble, very well-fortified and famous fort of Capella.
Once the siege was tightened, and while our king assailed the fort with wondrous siege engines, the Cordoban Moors, who neither fear God nor revere man, conspired as usual to murder their king and lord, namely the king of Beacia. When the king of Beacia found out about this, he fled with a few men. The Cordobans pursued him and caught him next to the fort called Almodovar, where they decapitated him. They sent his head to the Moroccan king,[xci] who was his arch enemy. Not many days before, the Moroccan king had crossed from Seville into the regions of Marrakesh. As asserted by many, when the head was offered to him, he struck it with the rod he held in his hand, using insulting words to deride him and all his kin. When a brother of the king of Beacia responded harshly to him, he was struck by the Moroccan king himself, with the latter using a sword to do so. Thus, discord arose and many fell on both sides as they slaughtered each other. We have learnt of these things through the reporting of rumour.
50. Our king manfully insisted on what he had begun, and day and night without intermission, and in whatever way he could, he indefatigably assailed the fort that he had besieged. The fort seemed unassailable to some, who, on hearing of the king of Beacia’s death, were advising the king to break off the siege and cross over to the regions of Cordoba, where he could bring many losses upon the Moors, in particular the Cordobans, in revenge for his noble vassal the king of Beacia. However, the king followed the advice of his prudent mother, who had counselled him to not to break off the siege in any way until capturing the fort, and so he persisted with his intention, doing so with firmness and constancy. Thus, day and night he gave no rest to the besieged Moors.
The Moors, worn out by the long period of toil and the long period of waiting, saw the king’s energy and constancy, and so they entered into an agreement with the king after giving hostages. The stipulation was that if the king of Seville, who was at Cordoba at the time, should wish to help the fort within eight days, then they could take back their hostages safe and sound without any loss and injustice. Otherwise, they were to hand over the fort to our king, with the sparing of their own lives and the mobile property they could taken with them.
So after messengers were sent to the king of Seville and they were received by the latter, the fort’s inhabitants became certain that this king would not come to help them, for the king of Seville shuddered at the idea of fighting with our king. And so they handed over the fort of Capella to our lord king for the sake of the honour and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The king, keeping his word even with his enemies, had the Moors, their wives and their children led away safe and sound with their mobile property (just as he had promised) to the fort called Gahet. The archbishop of Toledo, the bishop of Palencia and other religious men, who were with the bishops, rededicated the Moors’ mosque as a church to our Lord Jesus Christ, once it had been purged of all the filth of the Muḥammadan superstition by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and his most victorious Cross. They celebrated mass and the divine duties there with great joy.
On account of the appropriate opportunity afforded by the time, the king had the ruins and walls’ gaps caused by the break-throughs repaired. He also had the fort fortified with supplies, arms, siege engines and warriors. Then, around the feast day of the Assumption of the Blessed Mary, he returned with much joy and honour to his mother at Toledo.
During the same summer, the king of León besieged Badajoz, and the king of Portugal besieged Ielves next to Badajoz. Frustrated in their hopes after a long siege, they both withdrew from the besieged towns and returned to their own lands. It is not for us to say what these kings and their vassals did and how they conducted themselves in a deed so noble that they had launched the attack on the basis of an agreed pact that had been signed between them many days before. Although different people have different views, nonetheless all agree and have one view: that after countless losses and deaths of their own men, the Saracens boast about being able to defend their towns, and they retain control of them until now. Nonetheless, it is asserted by many trustworthy people that when the king of Portugal was abandoned by his own men, he wailed and grieved in an unbelievable way, and withdrew. As for the king of León, he could not tolerate the scorching summer heat, and thus headed to Galicia, making arrangements to visit the abode of the blessed apostle James.
51. In the year when our lord king made war on the Saracens and destroyed Quesada, Louis, the king of the Franks, assembled a large and strong army, and came into Pictavia and captured the noble fort called Niort, as well as the town called Saint John de Anglino. Eventually he besieged the famous town called Rochela, and after a long siege it was handed over to him. This king Louis had succeeded his father King Philip, who had died in era 1261.[xcii]
In that summer when our lord king besieged the fort called Capella and captured it by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, King Louis came to the regions of Provence to fight against the heretics and their defenders, acting on the counsel and authority of the Roman church’s legate, who at that time was acting on behalf of the Pope in the regions of the Franks. Louis came with a strong hand and extended arm, as well as a large and very strong army. He besieged the famous city of Avignon with many siege engines. After a long siege the city was handed over to the king and the legate.
After nearly all the land was subjugated, with the exception of Toulouse and a few other forts, King Louis died in Alvernia while returning to his land. Many great men and nobles, and many middle-rank people, and many of the people of lesser rank died in the aforementioned siege.
52. When the count of Toulouse and his supporters heard of the death of lord Louis the illustrious king of the Franks, they were very much filled with great joy, and thus prepared to rebel against the church and Frankish people, hoping that the young boy-king and the female gender would be unable to launch a great offensive. For King Louis was succeeded by his son Louis, a tender boy who was almost 12 years old. His mother, Queen Mistress Blanca, the daughter of the glorious lord King Alfonso of Castile, took responsibility for caring for the boy and the kingdom. As a prudent woman, she controlled and ruled the Frankish realm for a long time.
So a careful discussion was held between the legate of the Roman church who was in Francia at the time, and the archbishops, bishops and other prelates of the churches, plus the kingdom’s barons. Then noblemen who were strenuous and prudent were sent with a large multitude of soldiers and servants to fight against the count of Toulouse and his supporters. As soldiers of Christ and undefeated warriors, they gave no rest to the people of Toulouse, and rendered the entire land destitute of God’s help, and through the mediation of the king of the Franks, they placed it under the yoke of the Roman church.
The oft-mentioned count of Toulouse saw that he could not rebel, so he subjected himself to the will of the legate and the king of the Franks, and in Francia he was reconciled to the church, having first received sufficient caution from the legate, whereby he swore an oath that he would obey the church’s mandates in all respects and would not leave Francia before fulfilling all the conditions that could then be fulfilled. The count’s only daughter, whose marriage was discussed with the king of Francia’s brother, was brought to her cousin the queen of Francia, as the count was prolonging his stay in Francia.
In the year 1229 AD, Toulouse’s walls were completely destroyed, and its ditches were filled and levelled with the plain of the field, and all the surrounding fortifications were destroyed, with the exception of a few that the king of the Franks retained in his possession. Thus, the Lord Christ, our Saviour, destroyed every fortification rising up against him. The heretical wickedness, which had seemingly placed its nest in that land, was destroyed in large part, with many heretics delivered to the fire and others put to flight and dispersed. The Most High saw to it that their dispersion should not be a cause for the perdition of many. So the land came to rest once peace was restored to it- indeed it had not enjoyed peace for some time.
53. After the capture of the fort called Capella, the king of Seville, who was acting as Amīr al-Muʾminīn, began to discuss having a truce with our lord king, promising the latter much money. He paid part of this sum, and he was obliged to pay the remainder at a later date.
In that time, a certain Almogar plebeian rose in revolt in the realm of Murcia. As they said, he was strenuous in use of arms. He was called Ibn Hūd, and he fought against the Murcians. After defeating them, he captured their king and placed him in chains, and he obtained control of the city of Murcia and the kingdom, making use of the counsel of a certain powerful and prudent Moor, whom Ibn Hūd subsequently killed.
Ibn Hūd persecuted the Almohads with inexorable hatred, preaching publicly that they should not be obeyed as they were schismatics in their law, since they do not obey the lord of Baghdad,[xciii] who is of the line of Muḥammad. For this reason, he said that their mosques had to be purged, as though they were polluted by the Almohads’ superstition. He also said that the Almohads were oppressors of the people and violent exactors of tribute, and he asserted that he himself was the liberator of the people of Andalucia. For thus is the land of the Moors on this side of the sea called. Hence the people are called Andalusians, whom some believe to be the Vandals.
The Andalucians believed that divine power was at work in this man- because it is habitual for that people to pursue revolution through meagre persuasion. And so they abandoned the Almohads’ rule and followed this Ibn Hūd as though he were their king and lord. In order to please them and consolidate arch-enmity between the Almohads and Andalucians, Ibn Hūd launched a very ferocious attack on the Almohads, capturing their men, butchering them, killing them by means of various punishments, cutting off the breasts of women, and ending the life of children by inflicting a wretched death upon them.
When the king of Seville heard that Murcia had rebelled with Ibn Hūd against him, he mobilised his army and came to those regions and besieged Murcia. But thwarted in his wish, he returned to the city of Seville. Although the Murcians had endured many woes in the siege, they nonetheless remained firm adherents of Ibn Hūd. With their advice and help, Ibn Hūd gained control of almost all of Andalucia within a short period of time. For the Andalucians willingly subjected themselves to his rule, and abandoned the Almohads’ rule, which seemed burdensome and intolerable to them.
When the king of Seville saw the danger overhanging him, he feigned a reason to withdraw, claiming that he wished to cross the sea to seek help against those who were rebelling. He left his son in his place at Seville, and went to Ceuta. The people of Seville received his son and placed him in chains, telling Ibn Hūd to come to them in order to accept their services and obedience as their king. Ibn Hūd sent them his brother, whom they honorifically received in his place.
The people of Granada, Jaén, Cordoba and all the other surrounding towns accepted Ibn Hūd as their lord and king. The Almohads who held the fortification of Jaén surrendered it to him, while they and their wives and children were spared. The Wolf King’s[xciv] grandson rebelled against the king of Valencia, who was of the Almohads’ line. Seeing this, the king of Valencia came to our lord the king of Castile, begging for his help to oppose the rebels. And thus in a short period of time, Ibn Hūd had control of almost all of Andalucia except Valencia, in which the aforementioned Moor rebelled.
54. The king of Valencia, who was clever and astute, perceived that the people subject to him were preparing to rebel, and he saw the such great dissension in the entire Moroccan kingdom beyond the sea. He thus secretly indicated to the lord Pope- Gregory IX- that he wished to become Christian and bring his kingdom under the authority of the Roman church. He asked the Pope to deign to send a legate for this reason: a prudent, discreet and literate man. This was the most important reason why the pope then sent a legate to the Spanish lands: a prudent, discreet and literate man, master John de Abbisuilla the Sabinensian bishop. John told us this in person.
So the legate entered Spain around the feast day of the Assumption, in the year 1228 AD. Running through the province, he convened synods, establishing some new arrangements for the sake of God’s honour, the decency of the clergy and the management of the churches, in accordance with the wisdom given to him by God. But when he established some stipulations against clerics with concubines and their offspring to be born to concubines, such great unprecedented dissension arose among the bishops and clergy.
But while the legate was hoping for and expecting the conversion of the king of Valencia and some messengers rushed between the king and the legate, the king was expelled from his kingdom, as we have touched on above, and he came to our lord king. He had a meeting with the legate in our kingdom.
Frustrated in his hope conceived with regards to the conversion of that king, the lord legate, after the feast day of Easter in the year 1229 AD, delivered a verdict of divorce at Tiraso between the king of Aragon (lord James) and Queen Mistress Eleanor, because of the notorious incest in that they were related to each other in the third degree of consanguinity. In those same days, the king of León captured the famous fort that is Cauzres. So after the legate performed his duty and accomplished his embassy, he departed from Castile at the end of August with the intention of returning to Rome, from where he had come.
55. The king of Aragon, wanting to dedicate the prime of his youth to the Lord, assembled the army of Catalonia- noblemen and ordinary people- as well as some prelates of the churches. Around the feast day of the Nativity of the Blessed Mary, he came by sailing to the island called Mallorca. The Moors of Mallorca opposed them as they came out of their ships. They had a fight with these Moors, and through divine power, the Moors yielded to the Christians on the first day.
On the following day, since Guillelmus de Moncada (a strenuous and prudent man) and his kin preceded the king of Aragon in heading towards Mallorca, they fell into an ambush of the Moors, and he and many nobles of Catalonia succumbed. The king and those with him were following on from far behind, but they heard the din of arms and tumult of those fighting, and so they hastened and came to the place. They found the nobleman and many others slain, and they fought with the Moors. With the help of God, they killed many of the Moors, and put others to flight and shut them in the city of Mallorca.
Once the siege was tightened, and after countless toils and intolerable pressures and amid the lack of food supplies and the harsh winter, which had been harsher than usual, they captured the city together with its king, the king of Almeria who had happened to come to help, and all the city’s people. Many thousands of Moors were killed on entry into the city. May God on high be praised, for Whom it is easy to bring about victory with a few men as with many men. For as we have known from the letters of the illustrious king, when the city was captured there were barely 700 noble soldiers with him as well as 13000 infantrymen. So the city was captured on the last day of December in 1229 AD. The king of Mallorca died a few days later, after his son whom he very tenderly loved had been beheaded. Thus the king is believed to have passed away because of excessive grief.
56. So the entire island was subjected to the king for the sake of the honour and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, with the exception of a very well-fortified fort.
Around the time of Lent, the king of León entered the land of the Moors with a small part of his military and also some councils. He besieged the ancient famous city that has been reduced to being like a small town: namely, Mérida,[xcv] a metropolis whose dignity had been transferred to the church of Compostela. Hence also the bishops who in ancient times were under the authority of the archbishop of Mérida and belonged to the province of Lusitania are subject to the archbishop of Compostela. While the king was dragging out the siege, some brothers of the military order of Saint James and a few others pillaged the fort of Montanges. The city of Mérida was subsequently surrendered to the king.
The earlier mentioned Ibn Hūd, at the time present in the regions of Cordoba, assembled a multitude of soldiers and infantry with the intention of fighting. He came to a fort next to Mérida. When the king of León heard that Ibn Hūd was coming with the intention of fighting with him, he left Mérida and placed camp on the farther side of the river called Anna. So on the following morning both battle-lines came forth into the plain, and although those with the king of León were few in number compared with the multitude of the Moors, they obtained victory against the latter through the help of our Lord Jesus Christ. Many of the Moors were killed, and Ibn Hūd fled and escaped, albeit wounded.
57. When the inhabitants of Ielves heard that Ibn Hūd and those with him had succumbed in battle, they abandoned their fort and fled by night. Some Portuguese brothers returning from the battle in which they had participated with the king of León, found the gates of the town open. They entered and found no one inside, and so they took control of that fort, indicating the matter to the king of Portugal. When the king of Portugal heard about this, he sent his soldiers and other armed men to retain control of the fort. And thus the fort that was famous in those regions was acquired for the Christian name by the grace of our Saviour.
58. In the same period when these things were happening, that is 1228 AD, Frederick, the emperor of the Romans and the son of the Emperor Henry who was the first son of the Emperor Frederick, had carried the Cross for a long time, but not behind Jesus. He also did not want to fulfil the vow he had made in undertaking the Cross, looking for frivolous pretences to remain in Sicily and Apulia, which he was ruling as king. Eventually he was excommunicated by lord Pope Gregory IX. He did not obtain absolution and it was not sought out in the appropriate manner. And so, under compulsion and against his will, he sailed the sea with a few soldiers around the feast day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and came to the Holy Land over which he presided as a king on account of the son he had begotten from King John of Jerusalem’s daughter, to whom the realm was owed through hereditary right on her mother’s side. He dragged out his stay in the land over the course of the whole winter. He launched no great offensive as is befitting an emperor’s majesty, but rather he trusted in his astuteness and through intermediaries he made this agreement with the sultan of Babylonia: that the sultan should leave the city of Jerusalem to the emperor as his friend and not as his enemy. The city’s walls had been destroyed in the time when the Christians had acquired Damietta.[xcvi]
So the sultan retained the fortification of the temple for himself[xcvii] and power or jurisdiction among the Saracens residing there. To the emperor he left the remainder of the city, which the Christians could not defend against the Moors whenever the latter wanted to assault it. The sultan had received many precious gifts from the emperor.
59. And thus the truce was signed with the sultan for a period of ten years under very wretched and horrendous conditions, and then the land was evacuated of soldiers, crossbowmen and arms. Then the emperor returned to Apulia because of the devastation that the papal army was inflicting on the realm of Apulia. In this army were King John, Count Tomasio and the legates of the Roman Church, namely Master Pelagius the Spaniard, and also the bishop of Alba, once the elect of León, and Lord John de Columba. For when the emperor had crossed the sea to the Holy Land, he left a duke whose title was the duke of Vallispoletum as his deputy in the realm of Apulia. This duke assembled a multitude of Christians and Moors, and on the emperor’s order (as was said) entered the patrimony of the Blessed Peter, ravaging the land, occupying forts, and atrociously committing many massacres with the help of the Moors. He thus reached as far as Perusium, where the Pope was staying with his cardinals at the time.
So Pope Gregory IX and those with him wailed and grieved about the wicked slaughter of the Christians and the wretched devastation of the lands. The Pope feared for himself and his people, and so he summoned King John, whom he had appointed as his deputy in his cities and castles, and he also summoned the Lombards who belonged to the alliance of Milan, so that they should help the Roman Church. The Pope sent his army to fight against the earlier mentioned duke. This duke was put to flight and expelled from the Blessed Peter’s patrimony, and then the papal army entered Apulia, and occupied some cities and forts by force, while others willingly surrendered to the lord Pope.
In the year 1229 AD, the emperor returned to Apulia around the beginning of June, and he dragged out his stay there. Since he did not have a sufficient army to resist or fight against the papal army and was an astute man, he held out until the stipend payments that were being given to the papal army began to dry up, and thus the same army became diminished in size and began to withdraw. The emperor regained his strength and recovered some forts and some cities that he had lost. But the lord Pope retained some other forts thanks to his men.
The emperor came to Saint Germanus with his army and besieged the Alban bishop in the fort of Mount Cassino. Eventually a truce was signed between the Pope and emperor for a period of time that was not long. The bishop returned to the assembly, seized by a grave illness, and came to the end of his life and was buried at the feet of the lord Pope Innocent III in Perusium. The truce was then extended, and a discussion was held about peace and harmony between the emperor and the church. By the grace of God, at the beginning of September in 1230, the emperor came before the Pope’s feet at Anagnia where the latter was. They became reconciled to each other, and a peace treaty was signed under certain conditions, which would take a long time to write down.
60. In the same year around the feast day of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, our king lord Ferdinand besieged the very well-fortified city of Jaén, upon which he brought many woes. But eventually, around the feast day of Saint Michael, the king saw that his venture was of no use because of the multitude of defenders who were within the city, and the well-fortified nature of the place, and so he abandoned the siege.
A few days before the feast day of Saint Michael,[xcviii] the king of León, lord Alfonso, who was our king’s father, left this world in Villanueva next to Sarria in Galicia. As is believed, he ended his life with a happy end, as he manfully and prudently chased down thieves and other doers of evil with the zeal of justice.
His daughters heard of their father’s death, and although they were not far away from the place where their father died, they headed back with much haste and came to Astorga, and there they were not received as they wished. Then they left with indignation and came to León, where they were similarly not received as they wished. For the response of the people and bishops was that they would receive them and gladly serve them, but they would not receive their soldiers or armed men. The daughters came to Beneventum where they received a similar response. Finally they came to Zemora with their mother Queen Mistress Theresa, who always accompanied them. There they were received. These noble mistresses of the land of León were supported by Roy Fernandez (nicknamed El Feo),[xcix] the sons of Count Froyla, and many mothers.
Our king heard of his father’s death before he entered Toledo, where his mother and sister were. After holding counsel with his mother, the archbishop and the magnates who were present at the time, he crossed the Sierra in a hurry, and passing through Abula, he came to Medina. Then some people from Toro and some other towns of the kingdom of León came to him, and they found him at Medina. The king scorned some vain proposals that had been put to him, and then crossed the Duero and came to Villalal, and the men of that town immediately received him. On the following day, he came to Saint Cipriano de Mozot, where he was similarly received. On the following day, namely the feast day of Saint Luke,[c] he was received in Toro and the people there paid homage to him. On the third following day, he came and came to Villampando, which Queen Mistress Berengaria held. From there he came to Majorca and was received there with great joy and honou.
Then he crossed through Mansiela and came to León, where he was received by the bishop, clergy and all the inhabitants of that place, who endured many woes because of him. The city’s towers were held by García Roderic Carlota, a senior merino.[ci] While our king was prolonging his stay in the city as he did not want to leave before gaining hold of the towers, Queen Theresa came with her daughters and their supporters to Villalobos, and she sent a message to Queen Mistress Berengaria, asking Berengaria to deign to come to Valencia, and telling the latter that she would come to her in the same town. This is what happened.
61. So a discussion was held in the town between the queens regarding peace and harmony between the king and his sisters. A treaty of peace and harmony was signed between them at Beneventum, with the two queens, the king, his sisters, the archbishops of Toledo and Compostela, and many barons and councils being present in the town.
The form of the arrangement was as follows: that the king would assign for his two sisters in certain places an annual payment of 30,000 morabetinos for as long as they should live, plus many conditions that are contained in the letters drawn up regarding this arrangement. His sisters renounced whatever legal right they had in the kingdom, and destroyed their father’s letters that had been granted to them regarding succession or the donation of the realm. They also ordered for any forts or fortifications they held in their own names to be handed back to our king, with the exception of some forts that some faithful subjects are required to hold in order to preserve the arrangement.
Following these arrangements, our king came to Zemora and was honorifically received there. Then he entered Extremadura, where he was received by all with joy and honour. Thus, through the arrangement of God, in whose hand is the kingdom of men, our king peacefully gained control of his father’s realm in a brief period of time. The exception was Galicia, which he could not immediately go to and where considerable instability persisted, having arisen since the death of his father. And so the two realms, which had been separated on the emperor’s death, were united in the person of our king.
62. In the following year, around the birthday of the Lord, the king entered Galicia, which he brought from a state of instability to a state of peace. After uncovering many losses through proper inquiry and enacting some provisions against the stirrers of instability and evil-doers of the land, he came to the region of Oviedo in Asturias, where he stayed for some time, and after repairing the damage done there and pacifying the land, he left and crossed through León and came to Carrion, where his mother met him. His wife had also stayed there for a long time. Many of the peoples of the realm of León and many nobles of Galicia and Asturias came to see him there as well. He sent some of them away and took others of them with him to Burgos.
63. A very large multitude of people- both commoners and nobles from Castile, Galicia and other regions of the realm- came to the city of Burgos. The king extended his stay there for a while, dealing with various matters of business with the help of good men’s counsel.
64. In the following winter in era 1271,[cii] on the feast of the Epiphany, the lord king besieged Ubeda with the help of the nobles and some commoners- though not many- from the realm of León. In addition, on the king’s order, the people of Toro, Zemora, Salamanca and Ledesma came with a large multitude and much equipment in order to besiege the town. But when it was the end of the period according to which they were obliged to serve the king per their fuero (as they put it), they returned to their own abodes before the capture of the town. The king continued to besiege the town with the Castilians and aforementioned noblemen of the realm of León, until this famous town, which once flourished because of its riches and the multitude of its people, was handed to the king’s hands in the month of July by the grace of Jesus Christ. Indeed neither Ibn Hūd nor other powerful Moors on this side of the sea[ciii] had dared to come help this town.
Those who were kept under siege in the fortification, struggled because of the lack of bread and other supplies. So once the condition was imposed that they could leave with the sparing of the lives of both sexes and the sparing of the mobile property that they could carry, they surrendered the fortification to the lord king, and they left to the place they chose with safe guidance provided for them.
In the same period, the king of Aragon- lord James- besieged and captured the town called Borriana, which is in the direction of the famous city of Valencia. During that winter when our lord King Ferdinand besieged Ubeda, the master of Calatrava and people of Palencia, together with their bishop, besieged and captured the fort called Trugellum.
65. After the capture of the noble town, the king returned to Castile, and was received at Burgos with great joy and honour. He dragged out his stay there for a considerable period of time as he engaged in some great matters of business that entailed the interest of the entire land. While doing so, he is believed to have offended one of the senior men of Castile: namely, Lupus Diaz.
Lupus Diaz’s grudge that had been previously conceived during the siege of Ubeda began to grow day by day, but the kindled fire did not yet break out into a flame. So Lupus Diaz withdrew from the king, full of anger and indignation because (as he said) he felt on the basis of many signs that he had been spurned and deemed contemptible in the king’s sight. He prepared to take revenge, and began to hold a discussion about the liaison of a daughter of his with lord Nunius, the count of Rusellon and the grandson of the count of Barcelona and count Nunius of Castile. This took place after Easter in the year 1234 AD.
Around the same Easter, he had his other elder daughter partnered with Alvaro Peter in a similar liaison, since the three of them were related to each other by a similar degree. This liaison was consummated after the following feast day of Saint Michael, while the king and the queen (the king’s mother), the archbishop of Toledo and the bishops of Burgos, Segovia and Osma (the bishop of Osma being the chancellor) were at Burgos. Alvaro Peter and Mencia Lupus (whom he had married) were solemnly and publicly excommunicated by the bishops on Sunday at the church of Burgos on the advice of the bishop of Astorga (who was in the king’s assembly) and other jurists, on account of the manifest incest that went against the earlier prohibition enacted by the archbishop of Toledo and enacted by the bishop of Burgos at Burgos.
On account of this liaison, considerable disturbance arose in the realm. For the will of the king had not been sought (lest I should say rejected) in any way. The king’s consent was to be sought and waited for like that of an uncle, as he was the brother of the girl’s mother and the one who brought her up, since she was kept under guard in the bed-chamber of Queen Mistress Beatrix.
Through this pledge, Alvaro Peter became tied to Lupus Diaz with a very firm bond (as they put it) against their common enemies. Other people suspected that they had entered into an alliance against the king’s intimates, and I will not say against the king- something that subsequently became apparent as Alvaro Peter fortified, as far as he could, a town called Paredes with arms and a ditch. This town lies between Palencia and Carrion, and it is his own inheritance. He said that he wanted to remain on his own inheritance, and this was permitted to him (as he said) in accordance with the fuero of Castile, despite the fact that the king had already occupied the land that Alvaro Peter held from him.
66. When the king heard about this matter, he was moved with anger, and summoned his militia of noblemen as well as neighbouring peoples, having a firm intention to assail the aforementioned town. For the sake of this matter, he came to Palencia. But Alvaro Peter made use of saner counsel and submitted to the will and arrangement of the queen mistresses Berengaria and Beatrix.
After considering the advice of prudent men, these women ordered Alvaro Peter to leave Paredes as it was before, and leave the entire kingdom to go to the land of the Saracens, and stay there and elsewhere until he could regain the king’s favour, while his supporters would be restored to the king’s good graces. This was done with no condition and no pact stipulated in advance.
As for the 17 forts of the kingdom of Castile that Lupus Diaz held but had not received through a portarius, Lupus acknowledged that they belonged to the king, and he received them from the king’s hand via his portarius, with the land secured for him for a period of up to five years by Queen Mistress Berengaria under all decent conditions. Her son confirmed her mother’s action. Thus, by the grace of the One who is our peace, everything was pacified, and the land fell quiet and gained respite.
These things were done in the town called Palenciola around the feast day of Purification. As the beginning of the next Lent pressed on, and while the king was at Vallis Oleti, Alvaro Peter was permitted by him to go on his way, and he headed towards the land of the Saracens. The queens, being very prudent mistresses, realised beforehand the bad things that could happen to our frontier in the event of Alvaro Peter’s alliance with Ibn Hūd, who was king of the Moors on this side of the sea. Thus they made effective efforts to ensure Alvaro Peter should be restored to the king’s good graces. This is what happened, and thus he regained his land and forts.
67. Subsequently, in the following spring of the year 1235 AD, while Alvaro Peter went forth on the king’s order to Ibn Hūd in the lands of the Saracens, the king followed him with his noble army and some commoners. Then, after ravaging the standing crops of Jaén, Arjona and the small towns adjacent to them, the king came to an agreement with Ibn Hūd (who at the time was besieging Niebla between Seville and Portugal) through the mediation of Alvaro Peter, whereby Ibn Hūd would give our king 430,000 morabetinos in exchange for a truce until the following May. Almost a third of this sum was immediately paid, while another third was due to be paid on the following September, and the final third at the end of January. Following the agreement on whatever could be agreed upon at that time, the king returned from the regions of Cordoba and besieged Heznatoraf, a very well-fortified fort. It was immediately surrendered to him, with the lives of the Moors and the mobile property they could carry being spared.
Once protection was placed around the fort and the guardianship of the fort was assigned to a soldier with other men added to his company, the king came to an unassailable fort called San Esteván, which used to bring great loss on the Christians, particularly in besieging the routes by which one goes to Ubeda and Baecia. The alcaidus[civ] of the place and those with him immediately surrendered the fort to him, having received some of money as well as horses and some mules from the king. After the provision was made that they would remain in the fort, the king returned to his mother and wife at Toledo. Then he crossed through Segovia and entered Burgos on the vigil of the Assumption. He was received there with great joy and honour.
Regarding the two aforementioned forts, it had been stipulated in the signing of the truce that if the king wanted to besiege them or could capture them, Ibn Hūd would not defend them, and these two places were not included in the truce.
68. In addition, in the following period when disturbance arose in our realm, there was very great discord between the Roman Church, over which Gregory IX presided at the time, and the Romans, as the Romans were striving to trample down the church’s liberty and wanted to impose very harsh conditions and an unbearable yoke on the cardinals and the entire Roman clergy.
The same Romans took the Pope’s rights away from him, even as the Pope had held them since ancient times in the city, in terms of coinage, the election of the senator[cv] and many other matters. For this reason, the pope and his cardinals came to Reate, and he summoned Emperor Frederick from Apulia. After a careful discussion was held, it was thus decided that a sentence of excommunication should come upon the senator and some of the senior Roman officials. This sentence was immediately followed by the emperor’s fight against the Senate and the entire population of Rome. As a result, the emperor and the army he had with him at the time invaded the Romans’ territory. He brought many losses upon them. He captured some forts that the Romans held at the time, and he sent away a certain Teutonic count with his noble militia at Viterbo so that they could go and defend the church, with the Pope staying at Perusium at the time. The emperor then headed back to Apulia, intending to return, as he promised, with a large and strong army during the following summer.
Returning to sound judgement, the Romans, more out of fear perhaps rather than affection, submitted their necks to the church, and obeyed all the apostolic mandates about which there was dispute. A guarantee of security was provided in the form of an oath of the senator and many Roman noblemen. And so peace was brought about between the church and the Romans. Nonetheless the guarantee of security did not please some cardinals, because it seemed insufficient. Hence the peace was not firm or stable, and thus neither the Pope nor his cardinals wanted to enter the city.
The emperor, who had promised he would return with his army to help the church against the Romans, went to Germany and married the daughter of the then-reigning king of England, who was King John, the son of King Henry the Great of England. While dragging out his stay in Germany, the emperor assembled an army that was not large in order to fight against the Lombards who were rebelling against him: that is, to fight against Milan and its alliance. In era 1274,[cvi] around the feast day of Saint Michael, he entered Lombardia and brought many woes upon the people of Mantua, and he captured Vicenza, part of which was rebelling and part of which was supporting him. And so his army rested during that winter. The emperor then dismissed his army in Lombardia and returned to Germany.
During the same period, the emperor of Constantinople, who was called Annas and was King John of Acre (the son-in-law of our Queen Mistress Berengaria), was attacked by the Greeks, and the city of Constantinople was kept under a seeming siege. Hence the same emperor appealed to the Roman church and requested help from it, but contrary to his hopes, he was not listened to.
69. In the same period, during era 1274, our lord King Ferdinand received messengers at Beneventum from the Christians, while his mother was staying at León. These Christians had secretly occupied a part of Cordoba by night, and asked him to help them, because they had come into a situation of very grave danger, since they were very few in number compared with the Cordoban multitude, and they were only separated from the Moors by a wall that seemingly cut through the middle of the city. It was possible for the Moors to sally forth whenever they wanted from the part of the city they held in order to attack the Christians.
Nonetheless, with arms and men the Christians had fortified some very well fortified towers on the wall that they had seized, and the remaining Christians fought against the Moors within the confines of the part of the city that they held and the part that the Moors were defending. They were slaughtering each other. The Christians, seemingly roused by the Holy Spirit, had known about Cordoba’s situation beforehand, in that they knew that only a few people were staying in the part of the city that they had occupied. Presuming that they would go rather far under the initial leadership of a person who had been a Moor and had become Christian and had fully known about Cordoba’s situation, they came by night. They climbed the wall with ladders, and killed the walls’ guards. They then occupied that part of the city and killed many of that part’s inhabitants, while a number of the inhabitants fled to the remaining part of the city. Cordoba looked with regard on that people of another religion and language it had not nurtured,[cvii] seemingly killing its own sons in its bosom. Seemingly dumbstruck, it could not strengthen its untied hands and mobile knees against the enemy, whom it could not resist despite seeing that they were few in number. For the indignation and power of the Lord Jesus Christ kept such a large and strong multitude of the Moors in check.
So the aforementioned messengers insisted in the lord king’s presence that he should help his vassals who had exposed themselves to such great danger in order to serve him and honour the Christian faith, take up with a bold hand the hour that the Lord had made fortunate and offered to him, and show himself a man while all were listening to him.
70. So the Spirit of the Lord rushed into the king, and he placed all his hope in the Lord Jesus Christ and shut his ears so as not to listen to the advice of those who, like enchanters, were scheming to impede such a noble deed with words and persuasive guiles. These people pointed to the harshness of the winter, which was more inundated with rains than usual, the dangers of the routes, the flooding of the rivers, the few numbers of noblemen who were with him at the time, the doubtful outcome of such a great crisis, and- what was to be feared more than everything else- the innumerable multitude of the Cordoban people, who surpassed the other Moors on this side of the sea on account of their time-old strenuousness and training in arms. With them one would have to enter a struggle for their own lives and such a noble city that was their native land, as well as for the sake of their wives, children and everything they possessed.
The arrival of their king- namely Ibn Hūd- and all his forces could be feared on sufficiently reasonable grounds. They also reckoned that all the peoples of the cities adjacent to the Christians would rush together to fight against the Christians, akin to a very strong field and defence. The situation of every Moor on this side of the sea seemed to be discussed, even though, following Cordoba’s capture, the rest of the cities, seemingly weak and defenceless, would not be able to resist the very powerful king of Castile and León.
But rejecting all these counsels and considering them as worthless, the very brave soldier of Christ- King Ferdinand- left Beneventum on the following morning with much haste. He sent greetings to his mother remotely via a messenger, as she was at León at the time. The messenger was to faithfully report to her what had happened as well as her son’s firm intention, which could not be changed for any reason.
The king, crossing through Zemora, briefly spoke to the people there, and, like an eagle flying at its prey, he reached Salamanca. He stayed there for a short time, gave the horses and arms he could get to the nobles who were with him, and as far as was possible in such a short time, made the necessary preparations for such a great journey. Then he sent back the chancellor- that is the bishop of Osma- to his mother for the sake of distributing stipends to the soldiers who said they would follow him. Via a very direct route, he reached Mérida, neither turning to the right towards Civitas Roderici, nor to the left towards Talavera and Toledo, even though either of these routes seemed more convenient.
71. Then, giving himself no rest day and night, he passed through the impassable and deserted land. The rivers that had flooded and burst their banks posed no obstacle, nor did the muddy paths that impeded the way. Moreover, the weather was hostile, almost wholly given to rain. Nonetheless, and despite the Moors’ fortifications, he got his wish and reached Cordoba on 7 February. Blessed was that day on which the Christian people, who were then at Cordoba and faced with such a great crisis, saw their king, who exposed himself to such great danger in order to help his people!
There, the king found his noble and powerful vassal Alvaro Peter with the aforementioned people. He also found the bishop of Cuenca, who had come from the regions of Toledo when he heard that the Christians had captured part of Cordoba. The bishop of Beacia, who was also nearby, hurriedly came with his people.
When the lord king first came to Cordoba, there were not 100 noble soldiers accompanying him. The senior officials who had followed the king and reached Cordoba with him: the infante lord Alfonso his brother, Roderic Ferdinand el Feo, Gil Marric, Alvar Ferdinand (the son of Count Ferdinand), Diaz Goncalvus (the son of Count Goncalvus), Peter Pontius and Goncalvus Goncalvus his cousin, Tellius Alfonso and his brother Alfons Tellius.
Once a deliberation was held as to what needed to be done, the king, induced by the Holy Spirit’s counsel, chose to cross the river Baetis, as he realised that the Cordoban Moors could freely go out via the bridge and acquire what they needed and fortify their city with supplies, arms and men, if necessary. So he crossed the river via the bridge that is next to Cordoba and at a distance of two leagues in the direction of Andujar. He fixed his tents in the area next to the city’s bridge, namely between Cordoba and Astigi, which is a city only nine leagues from Cordoba. Hearing about this, Ibn Hūd, the king of the Moors who was in the regions of Murcia, was disturbed and touched with pain in his heart. He thus assembled a multitude of 4000 or 5000 soldiers and a multitude of 30,000 elite infantry. He then came with great haste to Astigi. Moreover, around 200 noble Christian soldiers with Ibn Hūd. They served him in exchange for their stipends.
It was hoped by all that King Ibn Hūd, trusting in such a great multitude, would fight with our lord king in order to liberate the city of Cordoba. Our king only had 200 noble soldiers and a few others beyond the bridge. For Alvaro Peter, some other soldiers and the rest of the people had remained in the part of the city they held. They could not cross the river in that part of the city even if they wanted to come to help the king.
So the lord Jesus Christ, the God of the Christians, strengthened his mercy upon those who fear him, and he who had inflamed the king’s heart to come to Cordoba and help his people strengthened the king’s spirit and the spirit of those who were with him. The king’s men also placed their souls in their hands, expecting throughout each of the days in which Ibn Hūd stayed at Astigi (that is, over the course of at least 15 days) that the king would come to do battle against the Moors. The Moors and Cordobans would wait for him over the course of the entire day.
72. But our Saviour, who did not abandon those who place their hope in him, rendered the Moors’ plan ineffectual, and he weakened their minds and strength. They did not dare to fight with our glorious king, with whom was God, for whom it is easy to bring about victory with a few men or many men. Again our king and his army endured a great shortage of supplies, as the rains did not cease and the rivers and torrents inundated beyond the usual level.
The king of the Moors went to Seville with a part of his army, having dismissed the remaining multitude. He fabricated some empty and false reasons for which he left Astigi. Cordoba made its people’s heart shrink amid their organs: for they saw what had happened and realised that their king had not dared to fight with our lord king. And so seemingly despairing for outside help, they decided to rebel till death.
After Easter, the Castilian army came, and then the Leonese and Galicians followed. The peoples of some cities preceded them: namely, the peoples of Salamanca, Zemora and Toro. When the Christians realised that the food supplies were failing in the city, they besieged the roads and streams on the order of the lord king, and the siege was tightened, and no one was allowed to exit or enter.
Thus, the Moors then began to hold a discussion about surrendering the city, with the condition added that they should be spared and allowed to go with their mobile property that they could carry with them. The king agreed to this condition, but when they were due to sign the pact, the Moors went back on doing so, as they realised that the supplies were lacking for the king’s army and that the councils of the realm of León did not want to remain, on the grounds that they had completed three months of participation in the expedition. And so our king, seemingly deceived by King Ibn Hūd, entered into an alliance with the king of Jaén, who was an enemy of King Ibn Hūd and the Moors of Cordoba. When Ibn Hūd and the Cordobans saw this, they became very afraid, and they returned to our king, offering him the city with the aforementioned condition.
73. Among the lord king’s magnates were those who advised him not to accept the condition, but rather capture them by force and behead them. He could do this because their food supplies were completely lacking, and seemingly worn out by hunger, they could not defend the city. Conversely, the king was urged to accept the condition and not to care about the lives of the Moors or the mobile property, so long as he could have the city sound and whole. For it was seemingly known for certain that the Cordobans had decided that if our lord King Ferdinand did not want to accept the condition, then they would despairing for their life and thus destroy everything valuable that might be in the city (namely, the mosque and bridge), hide the gold and silver, burn the silk garments- or rather the whole city- with fire, and deliver themselves to death.
The king acquiesced to saner counsel and on the will of the king of Jaén (with whom our king had entered into an alliance against King Ibn Hūd and the Cordobans), he accepted the aforementioned condition, and a pact was signed under the condition. In addition, a truce was given and signed for Ibn Hūd and his subjects for six years, such nonetheless that Ibn Hūd is to pay the king of Castile each year for three years a sum of 52,000 morabetinos. The king of Jaén is due to receive a part of this sum. So once these things were discussed and signed, the Moors of Cordoba were frustrated in their hope that they had conceived about retaining their city, and they were worn out by hunger. Thus they abandoned their homes, weeping, howling and lamenting because of the distress of their spirit.
Thus therefore, by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, the famous city of Cordoba, which was endowed with a certain peculiar splendour and fertile soil, and which was held captive for such a long period of time (namely since the time of Roderic, the king of the Goths), was handed back to the Christian religion via the effort and strenuousness of our lord King Ferdinand.
While the Saracens were leaving the city and rushing in groups because of their hunger, their leader, called Abū Ḥasan, handed the city’s keys to our lord king. Immediately, the lord king, as a Catholic man, gave thanks to our Saviour, by whose special mercy he acknowledged that he had obtained such great grace in acquiring such a noble city. He ordered for the banner of the Cross to precede his banner and be placed on the highest tower of the mosque, so that it could flutter in the sight of all as his banner followed. And thus the banner of the eternal King, accompanied by King Ferdinand’s banner, brought confoundment and ineffable wailing on the Saracens as soon as it appeared on the tower. Conversely, the sight of these things constituted ineffable joy for the Christians.
Throughout all the regions of the world, that happy day began to shine for the Christians on the blessed feast of the apostles Peter and Paul. The annual solemnity was performed on that day. Around the time of vespers, the chancellor (namely, the bishop of Osma), accompanied by master Lupus, who first placed the Cross’ banner on the tower, entered the mosque. They made the necessary preparations there for the conversion of the mosque into a church. They removed the superstition and filth of Muḥammad from it. Then they sanctified the place by spraying water on it that was blessed with salt, and what was previously the devil’s bedroom became the church of Jesus Christ, named after his glorious Mother.
On Monday, which was the following day, the lord king entered the city with his barons and all the people. Approaching the church, he was received honorifically with a solemn procession by the bishop of Osma, the bishops of Cuenca and Baecia, and the religious men who were present at the time, as well as the entire clergy.
74. So after solemn mass was celebrated by the bishop of Osma and blessing was granted for the people, the lord king entered the very noble palace that the Moors’ kings had prepared for themselves. About this palace, so many and such great things are said by those who have seen it, that they are deemed unbelievable by those who have not seen it. So on that day great joy arose in the city.
The barons and powerful men who served the lord king in the siege and entered the city with him were as follows: Alvaro Peter and others named earlier who came to Cordoba with the king. Nonetheless some of them had returned by order of the king in order to bring soldiers with whom they were bound to serve the king. Those who had come from Castile after Easter were as follows: García Ferdinand with his sons-in-law and sons, Diaz Lupus and his brother Alfonso Lupus, Roderic Goncalvus. From the realm of León and Galicia: Ramiro Froyla and his brother Roderic Froyla, Roderic Gomez and Ferdinand Guterius, Ferdinand John, Pelagius Arias. From Asturias: Ordoño Alvarez, Pelagius Peter and Sebastian Gutierrez.
So the illustrious king of the realm of Cordoba sat on the throne of the glory and began to discuss with his barons what needed to be done and how provisions could be made for such a great city, which was to filled with new inhabitants who were followers of Christ, as the Moorish people had suddenly vacated it. The walls stand, the sublime height of the walls is decorated with high towers, the homes shine with gold-plated ceilings, the city’s broad streets, arranged in order, lie wide open for travellers. But Although the city’s glory is so great, few were found who wished to remain there. For amid the lack of food supplies and disbursements, the leading men, afflicted with the tedium of long delay, hurried to return home. But the noble king, quiet in mind, pondered various outcomes, and after various discussions with the barons, he chose to remain there with a few men, subjecting himself to divine will, rather than leave such a noble city that had been acquired through such great toil without a guide as a defender or inhabitant. Eventually the following provision was made: that any magnates and masters of the orders should leave behind their soldiers along with their arms and horses, with which other warriors also stayed.
In the same period, 150 Segovian soldiers came, equipped with arms and horses and possessing abundant supplies. The lord king put Tellius Alfonso in charge of all who remained in the city. His brother Alfonso Tellius stayed with him. They were both young men, strenuous in use of arms and prepared to die and defend the city.
And so once these arrangements were made, the lord king headed back with his barons to his mother at Toledo. There he was received with much honour and great joy. Prolonging his stay there, he fell on the sickbed around the beginning of August. Held by it for a long time, he barely escaped the danger of death. Around the feast day of Saint Michael, while the king was prolonging his stay at Toledo because of his excessive weakness, such a great multitude of people unexpectedly flowed to Cordoba, seemingly in a sudden manner. For the ancient abode barely sufficed for the new inhabitants, and thus divine providence made good what great counsel feared.
75. Then on the feast day of Saint Luke, Lupus Diaz, a powerful and rich man, went the way of all flesh. When the lord king heard about this, he left Toledo with his mother as quickly as he could ride on horse, and he arrived at Burgos at the end of November.
I have completed this work in a short period of time, I believe.
Praise be to you, Christ.
Notes
[i] King of the Visigoths in Spain at the time of the Islamic conquest (though his rule was internally contested).
[ii] A title for a prince. The female equivalent is infanta.
[iii] Respectively, García Sánchez III of Navarre and Ferdinand I of Castile and León.
[iv] A locality in Burgos, Castile and Leon. This battle took place in 1054 CE.
[v] 1065 CE.
[vi] In 1064 CE.
[vii] King Alfonso VI of León (d. 1109 CE)
[viii] Referring to the ta’ifa realm of Toledo.
[ix] A battle fought in 1108 CE, being a victory for the Berber Almoravids.
[x] Alfonso VII, who used the title of emperor (d. 1157 CE).
[xi] Alfonso the Battler (d. 1134 CE)
[xii] Sancho Ramírez of Aragon (d. 1094 CE).
[xiii] Peter I of Aragon (d. 1104 CE).
[xiv] This battle took place in 1134 CE.
[xv] Ramiro II of Aragon.
[xvi] His rule of Navarre is dated 1134-1150 CE.
[xvii] A theologian and political figure who played a key role in the rise of the Almohads who deposed the Almoravids.
[xviii] The Almoravids.
[xix] The founder of the Almohad state.
[xx] His work was in fact known via Latin translation during this period, thanks to the translation efforts of Mark of Toledo (whom Rodrigo Ximénez de Rada commissioned to translate the Qur’an into Latin).
[xxi] Abū Yaʿqūb Yūsuf (d. 1184 CE).
[xxii] i.e. Alfonso VII’s daughter.
[xxiii] Sancho III of Castile.
[xxiv] Ferdinand II of León.
[xxv] Alfonso VIII, renowned for defeating the Almohads at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa.
[xxvi] i.e. He died in 1158 CE.
[xxvii] This took place in 1177 CE.
[xxviii] i.e. King Alfonso IX of León (r. 1188-1230 CE). The phrasing indicates that this part of the chronicle had been written prior to his death in September 1230 CE.
[xxix] Frederic II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1250 CE).
[xxx] Alfonso VIII of Castile.
[xxxi] i.e. The Almohad king.
[xxxii] Yaʿqūb al-Manṣūr (r. 1184-1199 CE).
[xxxiii] i.e. In 1195 CE.
[xxxiv] “Commander of the believers”- a title for the caliph. The Almohads claimed the caliphate mantle.
[xxxv] Peter II of Aragon (r. 1196-1213 CE).
[xxxvi] A battle fought in 1195 CE. It was a victory for the Almohads.
[xxxvii] Lit. “Fort of the Jews.”
[xxxviii] Berengaria, the daughter of Alfonso VIII of Castile. She commissioned Lucas of Tuy to write the Chronicon Mundi. Her marriage to Alfonso IX of León took place in 1197 CE.
[xxxix] Sancho VII of Navarre.
[xl] Various localities in what is now the far north of Spain, including parts of the Basque Country in Spain.
[xli] The Basque Country, but extending also into what is now southwest France.
[xlii] King Henry II of England (d. 1189 CE).
[xliii] John of England (r. 1199-1216 CE).
[xliv] “Without land”- corresponding to titles Sans Terre and Lackland, as he was not expected to inherit land.
[xlv] Louis VIII who reigned as king of France (r. 1223-1226 CE).
[xlvi] Philip II of France (r. 1180-1223 CE).
[xlvii] Suggesting that these lines were written in the period 1223-1226 CE.
[xlviii] Sancho I of Portugal (r. 1185-1211 CE).
[xlix] i.e. Muḥammad al-Nāṣir (r. 1199-1213 CE).
[l] The events here take place in 1211 CE.
[li] The name literally translates to “Safe/Saved Land.”
[lii] Renowned battle that took place in 1212 CE.
[liii] This version of the young prince Ferdinand’s death is similar to that in the Historia Gothica. In contrast, Lucas relates a story that he was killed by Jews, as he supposedly wished to expel Jews from Spain.
[liv] Rodrigo Ximénez de Rada.
[lv] i.e. Those who came from regions north of the Pyrenees Mountains.
[lvi] Cf. 2 Chronicles 20:12.
[lvii] 14 July 1212 CE.
[lviii] Ferdinand II.
[lix] Cf. Psalm 144:1.
[lx] Cf. Psalm 118:26.
[lxi] In January 1213 CE.
[lxii] Commonly known as Candlemas and commemorating the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, the feast takes place on 2 February.
[lxiii] Pope in the period 1198-1216 CE.
[lxiv] Leader of the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucids.
[lxv] October 1214 CE.
[lxvi] Held on the 14 September.
[lxvii] i.e. 31 October.
[lxviii] i.e. 1214 CE (remember that the equivalent CE year is era year minus 38).
[lxix] 1189-1191 CE.
[lxx] Alexios III Angelos, Byzantine emperor (r. 1195-1203 CE).
[lxxi] Andronikos I Komnenos (r. 1183-1185 CE).
[lxxii] Cf. 1 Samuel 14:6.
[lxxiii] The Sack of Constantinople, which took place in 1204 CE.
[lxxiv] Cf. Psalm 11:7.
[lxxv] June 1217 CE.
[lxxvi] King Ferdinand III.
[lxxvii] i.e. Around August 1217 CE.
[lxxviii] A person who holds an abbey in trust.
[lxxix] The feast day is on 30 November. The marriage took place in 1219 CE.
[lxxx] Molina de Aragon, a town where I routinely go to do grocery shopping.
[lxxxi] A very well-known fort in the northeast region of Guadalajara province, located near the village of Campillo de Dueñas.
[lxxxii] 1224 CE.
[lxxxiii] The reference is to Yūsuf II, who died in 1224 CE.
[lxxxiv] Cf. Daniel 4:17.
[lxxxv] Cf. Isaiah 33:1.
[lxxxvi] Cf. Deuteronomy 5:9.
[lxxxvii] Winter 1224-1225 CE.
[lxxxviii] 1225 CE.
[lxxxix] Derived from the Arabic al-qaṣr (“fort/castle”).
[xc] 1226 CE.
[xci] i.e. The Almohad ruler.
[xcii] 1223 CE.
[xciii] i.e. The Abbasid caliph.
[xciv] The ‘Wolf King’ is Muḥammad bin Saʿd (d. 1172 CE), who ruled the realm of Murcia. He is also mentioned in other Rodrigo’s Historia Arabum (“History of the Arabs”).
[xcv] A town renowned for its Roman ruins.
[xcvi] A town in Egypt.
[xcvii] i.e. The site of al-Masjid al-Aqsa.
[xcviii] 29 September.
[xcix] “The Ugly One.”
[c] 18 October.
[ci] A justice official.
[cii] 1233 CE.
[ciii] i.e. In the Iberian Peninsula, as opposed to the Muslims in North Africa who are ‘beyond the sea.’
[civ] Derived from the Arabic al-qāʾid (“the leader”).
[cv] The chief civil administrator in medieval Rome.
[cvi] 1236 CE.
[cvii] i.e. The Christians.