Alfonso x el sabio biography sample
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That this reputation for intellectual capabilities accompanied him from before his years as king can be seen in the description of him as non ignarus Alfonso on the Atarazanas de Sevilla; an inscription made short weeks after his accession to the throne in 1252.
As king, Alfonso faced the challenge of extending the frontiers of his kingdom, something which he would have assumed to be a central part of his royal task.
Nowhere is this more clearly stated than in the passage of the Estoria de España in which the cloud that covered Spain at the birth of Christ is interpreted to mean that in the Peninsula «avié de nacer un príncep cristiano que serié señor de tod’el mundo, e valdrié más por él tod’el linage de los omnes, bien cuemo esclareció toda la tierra por la claridat d’aquella nuve en quanto ella duró».
In any case, although many analyses of Alfonso tend to separate artificially the characteristics of “Learned” and “King” (often accompanied by the topos that he was a giant of the former and unsuited to the exercise of the latter) it should be noted that Alfonso himself seems not to have regard these two facets as so easily divisible.
His nobles, whom he tried to cow by sporadic acts of violence, rebelled against him. It is in this context of heightened political and personal tension that some of Alfonso’s more controversial decisions can be understood: the disinheritance and damning of Sancho; the collaboration with the Banu Marin in the civil war and the proposed clause in his will which conceived of the annexation by France of the kingdoms of Castile and Leon.
These and related episodes, alongside his reputation as an astrologer, contributed to the early creation of a black legend surrounding Alfonso; it was one that would be amplified with the passage of time by those with an interest in the blackening of his name (thus the famous legend of the blasphemy of Alfonso according to which he declared that if he had been with God at the Creation, he would have done it better) and by those who rushed to judgment, exemplified by the phrase of Eduardo Marquina, based on the views of padre Mariana: «De tanto mirar al cielo / se le cayó la corona».
The conflict would eventually give rise to a civil war between 1282 and 1284 which set an aged and infirm Alfonso against Sancho and the majority of the realm, including Alfonso’s wife Violante. The Cantigas de Santa Maria form one of the largest collections of vernacular monophonic songs to survive from the Middle Ages. His descent from the Hohenstaufen through his mother, a daughter of the emperor Philip of Swabia, gave him claims to represent the Swabian line.
A reaction in his favour was beginning in his later days, but he died defeated and deserted at Seville, leaving a will by which he endeavoured to exclude Sancho and a heritage of civil war. The Fuero Real was undoubtedly his work, and he began the code called the Siete Partidas, which, however, was only promulgated by his great-grandson.
The son of Fernando III and Beatrice of Swabia, his paternal line was intertwined with the royal houses of England and France (he was the great-grandson of Eleanor Plantaganet, wife of Alfonso VIII and his great aunt was Blanca, wife of Louis VIII); on the maternal side he was linked to both Roman and Byzantine imperial dynasties (through his great-grandfathers Frederick Barbarossa and Isaac II Angelos).
One of the miracles Alfonso relates is his own healing in Puerto de Santa María.23
Top Pieces on 8notes by Alfonso X el Sabio
Santa Maria, strela do dia (from Cantigas de Santa Maria)
The life of Alfonso X covers the 63 years that run from 1221 to 1284, the very heart of the thirteenth century.
To obtain money he debased the coinage, and then endeavoured to prevent a rise in prices by an arbitrary tariff. And at the end of the process, if Alfonso’s fecho del Imperio was condemned to failure, this was due no small part to that fact that the king (Ghibelline by borth and conviction) never managed to acquire the support of the papacy; the one institution whose views on the matter truly counted.
If the fecho del Imperio undermined the economy of the kingdom (an economy which Alfonso had no hesitation in reforming through a series of mainly fiscal measures), it also conditioned the king’s internal policy.
PoetAndPoem.Com
Biography Alfonso X (El Sabio)
- Time Period1221 - 1284
- Place
- CountrySpain
Poet Biography
Alfonso X, El Sabio, or the learned, (1221-1284, reigned 1252-1284), king of Castile and León, is perhaps the most interesting, though far from the most capable, of the Spanish kings of the Middle Ages.The poems are for the most part on miracles attributed to the Virgin Mary. All of this would eventually give rise to a conspiracy led by the second son of the king, the future Sancho IV. Sancho had been in conflict with Alfonso since 1275, when the death of his brother and heir to the throne Fernando de la Cerda left a succession crisis in Castile and Leon: Fernando had two sons, the Infantes de la Cerda, whose priority in the succession was defended by France -the Infantes’ mother Blanca was the daughter of St.
Louis, but Sancho had shown his prowess in the difficult days of 1275 and had significant noble support. The practical failure on all four political fronts has tinged the conclusions of subsequent accounts of his reign although the totalising aim of his projects is not often appreciated.
In the first of these Alfonso’s efforts were directed above all at the restoration of the Imperium hispanicum in the person of the Castilian/Leonese monarch, for which there existed a ready made precedent in the figure of another Alfonso, Alfonso VII.
This aim (apparently inherited from his father) from an early stage conditioned Alfonso’s relations with the neighbouring kingdoms of Portugal, Navarre and Aragon and was marked by episodes of intervention and territorial aspiration in Portugal such as the “Algarve question” (Alfonso retained the Algarve in the list of his kingdoms even after his definitive renunciation to his claim in the treaty of Badajoz in 1267) on the one hand, and repeated attempts to annex Navarre (following the deaths of Teobaldo I in 1253, Teobaldo II in 1270 and Enrique I in 1274 on the other.
Two decades later, in 1279, the destruction of the Christian fleet before Algeciras put a definitive end to Alfonso’s overseas adventures.
But perhaps the greatest political failure associated with Alfonso is that of his frustrated aspirations to claim the title of Holy Roman Emperor. Thus, such ideas as the restoration of the Imperium hispanicum and the fecho de allende, not to mention the rediscovery of Roman Law or the use of Galician in courtly poetry and Castilian in the chancellery documentation were already present in the court of Fernando.
Alfonso’s life can be divided almost equally between the periods of activity as prince (1221-1252) and king (1252-1284).
His second son, Sancho, enforced his claim to be heir, in preference to the children of Ferdinand de la Cerda, the elder brother who died in Alfonso's life. As a ruler he showed legislative capacity, and a very commendable wish to provide his kingdoms with a code of laws and a consistent judicial system. Alfonso seems to have regarded his lineage as providential; this can be seen in the almost messianic dimension of his sense of responsibility and the energy with which he threw himself into his all-encompassing political and intellectual ambitions.