Alfonso X of Castile

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Alfonso X
King of Castile and León
Reign1 June 1252 – 4 April 1284
PredecessorFerdinand III
SuccessorSancho IV
Born23 November 1221
Toledo
Died4 April 1284(1284-04-04) (aged 62)
Seville
Burial
Cathedral of Seville
Spouse
Castilian House of Ivrea
FatherFerdinand III of Castile
MotherElisabeth of Swabia

Alfonso X (also known as the Wise,

king of Germany on 1 April. He renounced his claim to Germany in 1275, and in creating an alliance with the Kingdom of England in 1254, his claim on the Duchy of Gascony
as well

Alfonso was a prolific sponsor of

Granada. The end of his reign was marred by a civil war with his eldest surviving son, the future Sancho IV
, which continued after his death.

Life

Early life

Born in Toledo, Kingdom of Castile, Alfonso was the eldest son of Ferdinand III and Elizabeth (Beatrice) of Swabia.[2] His mother was the paternal cousin of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, to whom Alfonso is often compared. His maternal grandparents were Philip of Swabia and Irene Angelina. Little is known about his upbringing, but he was most likely raised in Toledo. For the first nine years of his life Alfonso was only heir to Castile until his paternal grandfather king Alfonso IX of León died and his father united the kingdoms of Castile and León. He began his career as a soldier, under the command of his father, when he was only sixteen years old.

After the accession of King Theobald I of Navarre, Ferdinand tried to arrange a marriage for Alfonso with Theobald's daughter, Blanche, but the move was unsuccessful. At the same time, he had a romantic relationship with Mayor Guillén de Guzmán, who bore him a daughter, Beatrice. In 1240, he married Mayor Guillén de Guzmán, but the marriage was later annulled and their issue declared illegitimate. In the same period (1240–1250) he conquered several Muslim strongholds in

Cadiz
.

In 1249, Alfonso married

Yolande of Hungary,[3]
although betrothed already in 1246.

Reign

Alfonso succeeded his father as King of Castile and León in 1252. The following year he invaded Portugal, capturing the region of the Algarve. King Afonso III of Portugal had to surrender,[citation needed] but he gained an agreement by which, after he consented to marry Alfonso X's daughter Beatrice of Castile, the land would be returned to their heirs. In 1261 he captured Jerez. In 1263 he returned Algarve to the King of Portugal and signed the Treaty of Badajoz (1267).

In 1254 Alfonso X signed a treaty of alliance with King

Eleanor of England
.

Imperial election

In 1256, at the death of

Ezzelino IV da Romano deprived him of the initial support of Pope Alexander IV. His rival, Richard of Cornwall, went to Germany and was crowned in 1257 at Aachen
.

To obtain money, Alfonso debased the coinage and then endeavored to prevent a rise in prices by an arbitrary tariff. The little trade of his dominions was ruined, and the burghers and peasants were deeply offended. His nobles, whom he tried to cow by sporadic acts of violence, rebelled against him in 1272. Reconciliation was bought by Alfonso's son Ferdinand in 1273.

In the end, after Richard's death, the German princes elected

William VII of Montferrat (who had succeeded Ezzelino) and his Ghibelline allies in Piedmont and Lombardy to celebrate the victory against the Guelph Charles I of Anjou
and be crowned in Lombardy; he was however halted in his imperial ambitions in Provence by the Pope who, after a long negotiation, obtained Alfonso's oral renunciation of any claims to the Holy Roman Empire.

Civil war

Portrait of Alfonso X from the codex Tumbo 'A' de Santiago (Dated between 1229 and 1255)

Throughout his reign, Alfonso contended with the nobles, particularly the families of Nuño González de Lara, Diego López de Haro and Esteban Fernández de Castro, all of whom were formidable soldiers and instrumental in maintaining Castile's military strength in frontier territories. According to some scholars Alfonso lacked the singleness of purpose required by a ruler who would devote himself to organization and also the combination of firmness with temper needed for dealing with his nobles although this is not a view taken by all.[4][additional citation(s) needed] Others have argued that his efforts were too singularly focused on the diplomatic and financial arrangements surrounding his bid to become Holy Roman Emperor.[citation needed]

Alfonso's eldest son,

sultan of Morocco, they denounced him as an enemy of the faith. A reaction in his favor was beginning in his later days, but he died defeated and deserted at Seville in 1284, leaving a will, by which he endeavored to exclude Sancho, and a heritage of civil war.[citation needed
]

Economic policy

In 1273, he created the

Mesta, an association of some 3,000 petty and great sheep holders in Castile, in reaction to less wool being exported from the traditional sites in England.[5] This organization later became exceedingly powerful in the country (as wool became Castile's first major exportable commodity[5] and reported a trade surplus, called "white gold", as the wool amount was critical to the health of the population during the winter), and eventually its privileges were to prove a deadly wound in the Castilian economy. One side effect of the quickly expanding sheep herds was the decimation to the Castilian farmland through which the sheep grazed.[5]

The original function of the Mesta was to separate the fields from the sheep-ways linking grazing areas.

Legislative activity

As a ruler, Alfonso showed legislative capacity, and a wish to provide the kingdoms expanded under his father with a

code of laws and a consistent judicial system. The Fuero Real[further explanation needed] was undoubtedly his work. He began medieval Europe's most comprehensive code of law, the Siete Partidas, which, however, thwarted by the nobility of Castile, was only promulgated by his great-grandson. Because of this, and because the Partidas remain fundamental law in the American Southwest,[6] he is one of the 23 lawmakers depicted in the House of Representatives chamber of the United States Capitol
.

Military training

just (state-sponsored) usage
.

Court culture

Main article: Literature of Alfonso X

King Alfonso X developed a court culture that encouraged cosmopolitan learning. Alfonso had many works previously written in

Castilian language instead of Latin as the language used in courts, churches, and in books and official documents (although his father, Ferdinand III
, had begun to use it for some documents). This translation of Arabic and Classic documents into vernacular encouraged the development of Spanish sciences, literature, and philosophy.

Translations

From the beginning of his reign, Alfonso employed Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars at his court, primarily for the purpose of translating books from

Arabic and Hebrew into Latin and Castilian, although he always insisted on personally supervising the translations. This group of scholars formed his royal scriptorium, continuing the tradition of the twelfth-century Escuela de Traductores de Toledo (Toledo School of Translators). Their final output promoted Castilian as a learning language both in science and literature, and established the foundations of the new Spanish language. This evolved version of the Castilian language also acquired significant relevance in the royal chancery, where it came to replace Latin, which until then had been the language commonly used for royal diplomacy in Castile and León.[10]

The very first translation, commissioned by his brother, Fernando de la Cerda—who had extensive experience, both diplomatic and military, among the Muslims of southern Iberia and north Africa—was a Castilian version of the

Mirrors for Princes
: stories and sayings meant to instruct the monarch in proper and effective governance.

The primary intellectual work of these scholars centered on astronomy and astrology. The early period of Alfonso's reign saw the translation of selected works of magic (Lapidario,

Arabic, and then back into Castilian and Latin.[12]
Most of the texts first translated at this time survive in only one manuscript each.

Astronomy

As an intellectual he gained considerable scientific fame based on his encouragement of

Copernicus's development of a heliocentric understanding in astronomy.[13]
Because of this work, the lunar crater Alphonsus is named after him. One famous, but apocryphal, quote attributed to him upon his hearing an explanation of the extremely complicated mathematics required to demonstrate Ptolemy's theory of astronomy was "If the Lord Almighty had consulted me before embarking on creation thus, I should have recommended something simpler."[14] Gingerich (1990) says that a form of this alleged quotation was mentioned (but rejected) as early as the 16th century by the historian Jerónimo de Zurita, and that Soriano Viguera (1926) states that "nothing of the sort can be found in Alfonso's writings."[15] Nevertheless, Dean Acheson (U.S. Secretary of State, 1949–1953) used it as the basis for the title and epigraph of his memoir Present at the Creation.[16]

Chronicles

Alfonso also commissioned a compilation of

romances
. Sepúlveda wrote a number of romances having Alfonso X as their hero.

Historical works

Alfonso's court compiled in Castilian a work titled General Estoria. This work was an attempt at a world history that drew from many sources and included translations from the Vulgate Old Testament mixed with myths and histories from the classical world, mostly Egypt, Greece, and Rome.[17] This world history was left incomplete, however, and so it stops at the birth of Christ.[18] The main significance of this work lies in the translations from Latin into Castilian.[18] Much like his chronicles, the ability of Alfonso's court to compile writings from a variety of cultures and translate them into Castilian left a historic impact on Spain.

Alfonso X is credited with the first depiction of an hórreo, a typical granary from the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. The oldest document containing an image of an hórreo is Alfonso's Cantigas de Santa Maria (song CLXXXVII) from XII A.C. In this depiction, three rectangular hórreos of Gothic style are illustrated.

Games

Chess problem #35

Alfonso also had the Libro de ajedrez, dados, y tablas ("Libro de los Juegos" (The Book of Games)) translated into Castilian from Arabic and added illustrations with the goal of perfecting the work.[19] It was completed in 1283.[20] The Libro de juegos contains an extensive collection of writings on chess, with over 100 chess problems and chess variants.[21]

Music

Alfonso X commissioned or co-authored numerous works of music during his reign. These works included Cantigas d'escarnio e maldicer and the vast compilation

Puerto de Santa María.[22]

Family

Violante was twelve or thirteen years old at the time of her marriage to Alfonso; she produced no children for several years and it was feared that she was barren. Alfonso almost had their marriage annulled, but they went on to have eleven children:

  1. Berengaria (1253 – after 1284). She was betrothed to Louis, the son and heir of King Louis IX of France, but her fiancé died prematurely in 1260. She entered the convent in Las Huelgas, where she was living in 1284.
  2. William VII, Marquess of Montferrat
    .
  3. Ferdinand de la Cerda
    , Infante of Castile (23 October 1255 – 25 July 1275). He married Blanche, the daughter of King Louis IX of France, by whom he had two children. Because he predeceased his father, his younger brother Sancho succeeded to the throne.
  4. Eleanor (1257–1275)
  5. Sancho IV of Castile (13 May 1258 – 1295)
  6. Constance (1258 – 22 August 1280), a nun at Las Huelgas.
  7. Peter, Lord of Ledesma (June 1260 – 10 October 1283)
  8. John, Lord of Valencia de Campos (March or April 1262 – 25 June 1319).
  9. Isabella, died young.
  10. Violant (1265–1296). She married Diego López V de Haro, Lord of Biscay
  11. James, Lord of Cameros (August 1266 – 9 August 1284)

Alfonso X also had several illegitimate children. With Mayor Guillén de Guzmán, daughter of Guillén Pérez de Guzmán and of María González Girón, he fathered:

With Elvira Rodríguez de Villada, daughter of Rodrigo Fernández de Villada, he fathered:

  • Alfonso Fernández de Castilla (1242–1281), also known as el Niño, he held the title of "Señor de Molina y Mesa" through his marriage with Blanca Alfonso de Molina
    .

With María Alfonso de León, his aunt, the illegitimate daughter of the King Alfonso IX of León and Teresa Gil de Soverosa he had:

  • Berenguela Alfonso of Castile, who married Pedro Núñez de Guzmán in 1264, but died young leaving behind no descendants.

References

  1. ^ The Book of Chess, Dice and Board Games.
  2. ^ O'Callaghan 1998, p. 46.
  3. ^ Previté-Orton 1952, p. 902.
  4. ^ Márquez (1995) says "Some historians have been only too quick to label him, most unfairly, as a brilliant intellectual who was bungling and inefficient in practical affairs."
  5. ^ a b c Nicholas (1999)
  6. OCLC 847550277.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link
    )
  7. ^ Martinez (2010:82–83)
  8. ^ O'Callaghan (1993:65–66)
  9. ^ Márquez (1995:54)
  10. ^ Valdeón Baruque (2003)
  11. ^ Wacks (2007:86–128)
  12. ^ Carroll (2002:327–328)
  13. ^ Bogdanov, Alexander (1996). Bogdanov's Tektology: Book !. Hull: Centre for Systems Studies. p. 27.
  14. ^ Gingerich (1990:40 and 44n36)
  15. ^ Soriano Viguera (1926)
  16. ^ Acheson (1969)
  17. ^ a b "Alfonso X – king of Castile and Leon". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  18. ^ a b Procter (1951)
  19. ^ Burns (1990)
  20. ^ Musser Golladay (2007:31). Although Musser Golladay is not the first to assert that 1283 is the finish date of the Libro de Juegos, the a quo information compiled in her dissertation consolidates the range of research concerning the initiation and completion dates of the Libro de Juegos.
  21. ^ Wollesen, Jens T. "Sub specie ludi...: Text and Images in Alfonso El Sabio's Libro de Acedrex, Dados e Tablas", Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 53:3, 1990. pp. 277–308.
  22. OCLC 900344519
    .

Sources

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alfonso X of Castile.
Wikiquote has quotations related to Alfonso X of Castile.
Alfonso X of Castile
House of Ivrea
Born: 23 November 1221 Died: 4 April 1284
Regnal titles
Preceded by King of Castile and León
1252–1284 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
William
Rudolph

as contenders 		Succeeded by
Rudolph I
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alfonso_X_of_Castile&oldid=1212928570"