Aben Hud.—Abullale purchases another Year’s Truce.—Fernando hears of
the Death of his Father, the King of Leon, while pressing the Siege
of Jaen.—He becomes Sovereign of the Two Kingdoms of Leon and Castile.
About this time a valiant sheik, named Aben Abdallah Mohammed ben
Hud, but commonly called Aben Hud, was effecting a great revolution
in Moorish affairs. He was of the lineage of Aben Alfange, and
bitterly opposed to the sect of Almohades, who for a long time had
exercised a tyrannical sway. Stirring up the Moors of Murcia to rise
upon their oppressors, he put himself at their head, massacred all
the Almohades that fell into his hands, and made himself sheik or
king of that region. He purified the mosques with water, after the
manner in which Christians purify their churches, as though they had
been defiled by the Almohades. Aben Hud acquired a name among those
of his religion for justice and good faith as well as valor; and
after some opposition, gained sway over all Andalusia. This brought
him in collision with King Fernando...
☞ (Something is wanting here.)[77]
[77] The hiatus, here noted by the author, has evidently arisen
from the loss of a leaf of his manuscript. The printed line which
precedes the parenthesis concludes page 32 of the manuscript;
the line which follows it begins page 34. The intermediate page
is wanting. I presume the author did not become conscious of
his loss until he had resorted to his manuscript for revision,
and that he could not depend upon his memory to supply what was
wanting without a fresh resort to authorities not at hand. Hence
a postponement and ultimate omission. The missing leaf would
scarce have filled half a page of print, and, it would seem from
the context, must have related the invasion of Andalusia by
Fernando and the ravages committed by his armies.—ED.
laying waste fields of grain. The Moorish sovereign of Seville
purchased another year’s truce of him for three hundred thousand
maravedis of silver. Aben Hud, on the other hand, collected a great
force and marched to oppose him, but did not dare to give him battle.
He went, therefore, upon Merida, and fought with King Alfonso of
Leon, father of King Fernando, where, however, he met with complete
discomfiture.
On the following year King Fernando repeated his invasion of
Andalusia, and was pressing the siege of the city of Jaen, which
he assailed by means of engines discharging stones, when a courier
arrived in all speed from his mother, informing him that his father
Alfonso was dead, and urging him to proceed instantly to Leon, to
enforce his pretensions to the crown. King Fernando accordingly
raised the siege of Jaen, sending his engines to Martos, and repaired
to Castile, to consult with his mother, who was his counselor on all
occasions.
It appeared that in his last will King Alfonso had named his two
daughters joint heirs to the crown. Some of the Leonese and Gallegos
were disposed to place the Prince Alonzo, brother to King Fernando,
on the throne; but he had listened to the commands of his mother,
and had resisted all suggestions of the kind; the larger part of
the kingdom, including the most important cities, had declared for
Fernando.
Accompanied by his mother, King Fernando proceeded instantly into the
kingdom of Leon with a powerful force. Wherever they went the cities
threw open their gates to them. The princesses Doña Sancha and Doña
Dulce, with their mother Theresa, would have assembled a force to
oppose them, but the prelates were all in favor of King Fernando. On
his approach to Leon, the bishops and clergy and all the principal
inhabitants came forth to receive him, and conducted him to the
cathedral, where he received their homage, and was proclaimed king,
with the _Te Deums_ of the choir and the shouts of the people.
Doña Theresa, who, with her daughters, was in Galicia, finding the
kingdom thus disposed of, sent to demand provision for herself
and the two princesses, who in fact were step-sisters of King
Fernando. Queen Berenguela, though she had some reason not to feel
kindly disposed towards Doña Theresa, who she might think had been
exercising a secret influence over her late husband, yet suppressed
all such feelings, and undertook to repair in person to Galicia, and
negotiate this singular family question. She had an interview with
Queen Theresa at Valencia de Merlio in Galicia, and arranged a noble
dower for her, and an annual revenue to each of her daughters of
thirty thousand maravedis of gold. The king then had a meeting with
his sisters at Benevente, where they resigned all pretensions to the
throne. All the fortified places which held for them were given up,
and thus Fernando became undisputed sovereign of the two kingdoms of
Castile and Leon.
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