Ferdinand III (30 July or 5 August 1199 – 30 May
1252), called the Saint, was the King of
Castile from 1217 and King of León from
1230. Through his second marriage he was also Count of
Aumale. He finished the work done by his maternal grandfather Alfonso
VIII and consolidated the Reconquista. In 1231, he
permanently united Castile and León. He was canonised in 1671 and, in Spanish, he is Fernando el Santo or San Fernando.
Ferdinand was the son of Alfonso IX of León and Berenguela of Castile. He was born at the monastery of Valparaíso
(Peleas de Arriba, Zamora) in 1198 or 1199. His parents were
divorced by order of Pope Innocent III in 1204.
Berenguela took their children, including Ferdinand, to the court of her father. In 1217, her
younger brother Henry I died and she succeeded him to the Castilian throne, but she
immediately surrendered it to her son Ferdinand, for whom she initially acted as regent. When Alfonso died in 1230, Ferdinand
also inherited León, though he had to fight for it with Alfonso's designated heirs, Sancha and Dulce, the daughters of his first
wife. He thus became the first sovereign of both kingdoms since the death of Alfonso
VII in 1157.
Early in his reign, Ferdinand had to deal with a rebellion of the House of Lara. He also
established a permanent border with the Kingdom of Aragon by the Treaty of Almizra (1244).
Ferdinand spent much of his reign fighting the Moors. Through diplomacy and war, exploiting the
internal dissensions in the Moorish kingdoms, he triumphed in expanding Castilian power over southern Spain. He captured the
towns of Úbeda in 1233, Córdoba in 1236, Jaén in
1246, and Seville in 1248, and
occupied Murcia in 1243, thereby reconquering all
Andalusia save Granada, whose king nevertheless did homage to
Ferdinand. Ferdinand divided the conquered territories between the military orders, the
Church, and the nobility, whom he enfeoffed with great latifundias. When he took Córdoba, he
ordered the Liber Iudiciorum to be adopted and observed by its citizens, and
caused it to be rendered, albeit inaccurately, into Castilian.
United arms of Castile and León which Ferdinand first used.
The capture of Córdoba was the result of an uneven and uncoordinated process whereby parts (the Ajarquía) of the city first
fell to the independent almogavars of the Sierra Madre
to the north, which Ferdinand had not at the time subjugated.[1] Only in 1236 did Ferdinand arrive with a royal army to take Medina, the religious and administrative
centre of the city.[2] Ferdinand set up a council of
partidores to divide the conquests and between 1237 and 1244 a
great deal of land was parcelled out to private individuals and members of the royal family as well as the Church.[3] On 10 March 1241, Ferdinand established seven outposts to define the boundary of the province of Córdoba.
On the domestic front, he strengthened the University of Salamanca and
founded the current Cathedral of Burgos. He was a patron of the newest movement in the
church: that of friars. Whereas the Benedictines and then the
Cistercians and Cluniacs had taken a major part in the
Reconquista up til then, Ferdinand founded Dominican, Franciscan, Trinitarian, and Mercedarian houses in Andalusia, thus determining the religious future of that
region. Ferdinand has also been credited with sustaining the convivencia in
Andalusia.[4]
The Primera Crónica General de España asserts that, on his death bed, Ferdinand
commended his son "you are rich in lands and in many good vassals — more so than any other king in Christendom," probably in
recognition of his expansive conquests.[5] He was buried
within the Great Mosque of Seville by his son Alfonso X. His tomb is inscribed with four languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, and an early
incarnation of Castilian.[6] Ferdinand was canonised by
Pope Clement X in 1671. Several places named
San Fernando were founded across the Spanish
Empire.
Marriages and family
In 1219, Ferdinand married Elisabeth of
Hohenstaufen (1203–1235), daughter of the German king Philip of Swabia and Irene Angelina. Elisabeth was called
Beatriz in Spain. Their children were:
- Alfonso X, his successor
- Fadrique
- Ferdinand (1225–1243/1248)
- Eleanor (born 1227), died young
- Berenguela (1228–1288/89), a nun at Las Huelgas
- Henry
- Philip (1231–1274). He was promised to the Church, but was so taken by the beauty of Christine, daughter of Haakon IV of Norway, who had been intended as a bride for one of his brothers, that he abandoned his
holy vows and married her. She died in 1262, childless.
- Sancho, Archbishop of Toledo and Seville (1233–1261)
- Juan Manuel, Lord of Villena
- Maria, died an infant in November 1235
After he widowed, he married Jeanne of Dammartin, Countess of Ponthieu, before August 1237. They had four sons and one
daughter:
- Ferdinand (1239–1269), Count of
Aumale
- Eleanor, married Edward I of
England
- Louis (1243–1269)
- Jimeno (1244), died young and buried in a monastery in Toledo
- John (1245), died young and buried at the cathedral in Córdoba
Notes
- ^ Edwards, 6.
- ^ Ibid.
- ^ Ibid, 7.
- ^ Ibid, 182.
- ^ Ibid, 1.
- ^ Menocal, 47.
References
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