Materials for the Reign of Alfonso X of Castile, 1252–84

Evelyn S. Procter

doi:10.2307/3678507

Materials for the Reign of Alfonso X of Castile, 1252–84

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009

Evelyn S. Procter

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

The historian Mariana, writing at the end of the sixteenth century, summed up the achievements of Alfonso X in the epigrammatic phrase Dumque cœlum considerat, observatque astra, terram amisit, and this conception of the king as a scholar incompetent to govern is, on the whole, still very generally accepted. More than a century later, the Marquis of Mondéjar, in his Memorias Históricas del Rey Don Alonso el Sabio, posthumously published in 1777, attempted a vindication of the king. His work is a narrative of the political history of the reign, based on the Crónica de Alfonso Décimo, a late and unreliable source, but the only narrative account of the reign that is of any length. Mondéjar was at pains to point out the contradictions and errors of the Crónica, and, wherever possible, to clear the king's reputation from its imputations. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century interest in Alfonso X has steadily increased. The publication of the text of his legal codes, and of collections of documents containing materials for this period, and the gathering together of records in the Archivo Histórico Nacional at Madrid have much facilitated the task of investigation. Some good work has recently been done on certain aspects of the subject. German and Spanish scholars have studied Alfonso's relations with Germany and Italy, arising out of his candidature for the Imperial crown; his relations with France have been elucidated, and much critical work has been carried out on his literary achievements. The publication of historical material, the specialized research of recent years, above all the advance in historical method and criticism, and the change in the fashion of historical writing which have taken place since Mondéjar's time have combined to make his work antiquated.

Type: Research Article
Information: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 14 , December 1931 , pp. 39 - 63

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3678507 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1931

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 39 note 1} Mariana, Juan de, Historia de Rebus Hispaniœ (Toleti, 1592), p. 649Google Scholar .

^{page 40 note 1} Señor Don Antonio Ballesteros y Beretta has in preparation a work on Alfonso X.

^{page 40 note 2} See Ballesteros, Antonio y Pio, Cuestiones Histdricas (Madrid, 1913), pp. 193–201Google Scholar , for brief comments on the chief ecclesiastical and municipal archives.

^{page 43 note 1} Crón. Alf, X, cap. XXXIII, p. 28. The privileges which I have examined support this. Estéban Fernandez appears as adelantado of Galicia from May 1266 to October 1272. I have found no mention of an adelantado or merino mayor of Castile after the end of 1266, nor of Leon from July 1268 to September 1279; but I have seen comparatively few privileges for the second half of the reign.

^{page 46 note 1} Cartellieri, O., Peter von Aragon und die Sizilianische Vesper (Heidelberg, 1904), pp. 44–5, 204–8Google Scholar .

^{page 47 note 1} Brandaô, Antonio, Monarchia Lusitana, Parte IV, Lisbon, edition of 1725, liv. 15, caps. 5–7, 12–13, 15–18, 31, 34–5Google Scholar . Herculano, A., Historia de Portugal (2nd edition), vol. Ill, esp. pp. 395–406, 413–14Google Scholar .

^{page 47 note 2} Vol. 1, 1861, pp. 54–94.

^{page 47 note 3} Ed. R. Menéndez Pidal. (Madrid, 1906.)

^{page 48 note 1} Pidal, R. Menéndez, “La Crónica general de Españia que mandó componer Alfonso el Sabio,” in the author's Estudios literarios (Madrid, 1920), pp. 183–5Google Scholar .

^{page 48 note 2} Ed. M. Aguiló y Fuster. (Barcelona, 1873.)

^{page 48 note 3} Ed. Buchon, , Chroniques étrangères relatives aux expéditions francaises pendant le XIII^e siècle (Paris, 1841), pp. 565–736Google Scholar .

^{page 49 note 1} Desclot, cap. 76.

^{page 49 note 2} All published in Espana Sagrada, Vol. XXIII.

^{page 50 note 1} Ed. Fita, Fidel, “Biografias de San Fernando y de Alfonso el Sabio por Gil de Zamora,” Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia, V (1884), pp. 308–28Google Scholar .

^{page 50 note 2} Ib., p. 328.

^{page 50 note 3} Ib., §16, p. 319; § 21, p. 321.

^{page 50 note 4} Ed. Morel-Fatio, A. in Bibliothèque de I'Étcole des Chartes, LIX (1898), PP. 325–78CrossRef Google Scholar .

^{page 51 note 1} See R. Pidal, Menéndez, Crónicas Generates de España, 3rd edition, Madrid, 1918 (Catalogo de la Real Biblioteca, v. Manuscritos), pp. 45–51Google Scholar .

^{page 51 note 2} Ib., pp. 50–1.

^{page 52 note 1} Pidal, R. Menèndez, La Leyenda de los Infantes de Lara (Madrid, 1896), pp. 55–74Google Scholar . Crónicas Generates de España, pp. 107–10, 125–30, 135–7, 141–5.

^{page 52 note 2} Ed. Cayetano Rosell, Biblioteca de Autores Espaiioles, LXVI.

^{page 52 note 3} Edition of 1788, II, p. 173–4.

^{page 52 note 4} E.g. Crón. Alf. X, cap. XVII, p. 12.

^{page 52 note 5} Crón. Sancho IV, cap. IX, p. 87.

^{page 53 note 1} Crón. Alf. X, cap. VII, p. 7.

^{page 53 note 2} Ib., cap. XVIII, p. 13.

^{page 54 note 1} Cón. Alf. X, cap. VI, pp. 6–7; caps. X–XV, pp. 8–11. On the correct dates of these events, cf. Ballesteros, , Historia de España, III, pp. 17seq.Google Scholar , and Sevilla en el siglo trece (Madrid, 1913), pp. 105seqqGoogle Scholar .

^{page 54 note 2} Ib., cap. II, p. 4; cap. X, p. 8.

^{page 54 note 3} E.g. Crón. Alf. X, caps. XL, XLI, LII.

^{page 55 note 1} E.g. cap. L, p. 37; cap. LV, p. 43; cap. LVII, p. 45: contrast cap. II, p. 4; cap. XVIII, p. 13.

^{page 55 note 2} For example, compare the account of the Ayimtamiento of Almagro given in Crón. Alf. X, cap. XLVII, with the privilege published in Cortes de los Antiquos Reinos de Leon y de Castilla, I, pp. 85–6, and the demands of the nobles, especially as given in cap. LIV, p. 42, with the document published in Yanguas, J., Diccionario de Antiqūedades del reino de Navarra III, p. 42Google Scholar .

^{page 55 note 3} Crón. Alf. X, cap. XX, p. 15.

^{page 56 note 1} Cron. Alf. X, cap. XXV, p. 21.

^{page 56 note 2} Arch. Navarra, Cajon 3, Nos. 58–63.

^{page 56 note 3} Ballesteros, , Sevilla en el siglo trece, App. M, p. cccxxxGoogle Scholar .

^{page 56 note 4} Crón. Alf. X, cap. LXII, p. 49.

^{page 56 note 5} Ib., cap. LXVII, p. 53, en el escriplo que se falla desde aquel tiempo. Cap. LXXII, p. 56, la estoria de lo que se falló en escripto de este fecho.

^{page 57 note 1} For example, a document of 10 May, 1283 [Reg. 61, fol. 128^V], refers to Sancho's siege of Agreda. Cf. Crón. Alf. X, cap. LXXVII, p. 63. Pedro Ill's presence at Logroño in the summer of 1283 [Crón. Alf. X, cap. LXXVII, p. 64] is proved by various documents in Reg. 47, fol. 120 seq.

^{page 57 note 2} E.g. Crón. Alf. X, cap. LXVII, p. 52, cap. LXXIV, p. 58; cap. LXXV, p. 59.

Article contents

Materials for the Reign of Alfonso X of Castile, 1252–84

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests