Aben Hudiel, the Moorish King of Murcia, becomes the Vassal of
King Fernando.—Aben Alhamar seeks to drive the Christians out of
Andalusia.—Fernando takes the Field against him.—Ravages of the
King.—His Last Meeting with the Queen-Mother.
The death of Count Alvar Perez de Castro caused deep affliction to
King Fernando, for he considered him the shield of the frontier.
While he was at Cordova, or at his rock of Martos, the king felt
as assured of the safety of the border as though he had been there
himself. As soon as he could be spared from Castile and Leon, he
hastened to Cordova, to supply the loss the frontier had sustained
in the person of his vigilant lieutenant. One of his first measures
was to effect a truce of one year with the king of Granada,—a measure
which each adopted with great regret, compelled by his several
policy: King Fernando to organize and secure his recent conquests;
Aben Alhamar to regulate and fortify his newly founded kingdom.
Each felt that he had a powerful enemy to encounter and a desperate
struggle before him.
King Fernando remained at Cordova until the spring of the following
year (1241), regulating the affairs of that noble city, assigning
houses and estates to such of his cavaliers as had distinguished
themselves in the conquest, and, as usual, making rich donations
of towns and great tracts of land to the Church and to different
religious orders. Leaving his brother Alfonso with a sufficient force
to keep an eye upon the king of Granada and hold him in check, King
Fernando departed for Castile, making a circuit by Jaen and Baeza
and Andujar, and arriving in Toledo on the fourth of April. Here
he received important propositions from Aben Hudiel, the Moorish
king of Murcia. The death of Aben Hud had left that kingdom a scene
of confusion. The alcaydes of the different cities and fortresses
were at strife with each other, and many refused allegiance to Aben
Hudiel. The latter, too, was in hostility with Aben Alhamar, the king
of Granada, and he feared he would take advantage of his truce with
King Fernando, and the distracted state of the kingdom of Murcia,
to make an inroad. Thus desperately situated, Aben Hudiel had sent
missives to King Fernando, entreating his protection, and offering to
become his vassal.
The king of Castile gladly closed with this offer. He forthwith sent
his son and heir, the Prince Alfonso, to receive the submission
of the king of Murcia. As the prince was young and inexperienced
in these affairs of state, he sent with him Don Pelayo de Correa,
the Grand Master of Santiago, a cavalier of consummate wisdom and
address, and also Rodrigo Gonzalez Giron. The prince was received
in Murcia with regal honors; the terms were soon adjusted by which
the Moorish king acknowledged vassalage to King Fernando, and ceded
to him one half of his revenues, in return for which the king
graciously took him under his protection. The alcaydes of Alicant,
Elche, Oriola, and several other places, agreed to this covenant of
vassalage, but it was indignantly spurned by the Wali of Lorca; he
had been put in office by Aben Hud; and, now that potentate was no
more, he aspired to exercise an independent sway, and had placed
alcaydes of his own party in Mula and Carthagena.
As the Prince Alfonso had come to solemnize the act of homage and
vassalage proposed by the Moorish king, and not to extort submission
from his subjects by force of arms, he contented himself with making
a progress through the kingdom and receiving the homage of the
acquiescent towns and cities, after which he rejoined his father in
Castile.
It is conceived by the worthy Fray Antonio Agapida, as well as
by other monkish chroniclers, that this important acquisition of
territory by the saintly Fernando was a boon from Heaven in reward
of an offering which he made to God of his daughter Berenguela,
whom early in this year he dedicated as a nun in the convent of Las
Huelgas, in Burgos—of which convent the king’s sister Constanza was
abbess.[79]
[79] _Cronica del Rey Santo_, cap. 13.
About this time it was that King Fernando gave an instance of his
magnanimity and his chivalrous disposition. We have seen the deadly
opposition he had experienced from the haughty house of Lara, and
the ruin which the three brothers brought upon themselves by their
traitorous hostility. The anger of the king was appeased by their
individual ruin; he did not desire to revenge himself upon their
helpless families, nor to break down and annihilate a house lofty
and honored in the traditions of Spain. One of the brothers, Don
Fernando, had left a daughter, Doña Sancha Fernandez de Lara; there
happened at this time to be in Spain a cousin-german of the king,
a prince of Portugal, Don Fernando by name, who held the señorio
of Serpa. Between this prince and Doña Sancha the king effected a
marriage, whence has sprung one of the most illustrious branches of
the ancient house of Lara.[80] The other daughters of Don Fernando
retained large possessions in Castile; and one of his sons will be
found serving valiantly under the standard of the king.
[80] _Notas para la Vida del Santo Rey_, p. 554.
In the mean time the truce with Aben Alhamar, the king of Granada,
had greatly strengthened the hands of that monarch. He had received
accessions of troops from various parts, had fortified his capital
and his frontiers, and now fomented disturbances in the neighboring
kingdom of Murcia,—encouraging the refractory cities to persist in
their refusal of vassalage,—hoping to annex that kingdom to his own
newly consolidated dominions.
The Wali of Lorca and his partisans, the alcaydes of Mula and
Carthagena, thus instigated by the king of Granada, now increased in
turbulence, and completely overawed the feeble-handed Aben Hudiel.
King Fernando thought this a good opportunity to give his son and
heir his first essay in arms. He accordingly dispatched the prince a
second time to Murcia, accompanied as before by Don Pelayo de Correa,
the Grand Master of Santiago; but he sent him now with a strong
military force, to play the part of a conqueror. The conquest, as may
be supposed, was easy; Mula, Lorca, and Carthagena soon submitted,
and the whole kingdom was reduced to vassalage—Fernando henceforth
adding to his other titles King of Murcia. “Thus,” says Fray Antonio
Agapida, “was another precious jewel wrested from the kingdom of
Antichrist, and added to the crown of this saintly monarch.”
But it was not in Murcia alone that King Fernando found himself
called to contend with his new adversary the king of Granada. That
able and active monarch, strengthened as has been said during the
late truce, had made bold forays in the frontiers recently conquered
by King Fernando, and had even extended them to the neighborhood
of Cordova. In all this he had been encouraged by some degree of
negligence and inaction on the part of King Fernando’s brother
Alfonso, who had been left in charge of the frontier. The prince took
the field against Aben Alhamar, and fought him manfully; but the
Moorish force was too powerful to be withstood, and the prince was
defeated.
Tidings of this was sent to King Fernando, and of the great danger of
the frontier, as Aben Alhamar, flushed with success, was aiming to
drive the Christians out of Andalusia. King Fernando immediately set
off for the frontier, accompanied by the Queen Juana. He did not wait
to levy a powerful force, but took with him a small number—knowing
the loyalty of his subjects and their belligerent propensities, and
that they would hasten to his standard the moment they knew he was in
the field and exposed to danger. His force accordingly increased as
he advanced. At Andujar he met his brother Alfonso with the relics
of his lately defeated army,—all brave and expert soldiers. He had
now a commanding force, and leaving the queen with a sufficient
guard at Andujar, he set off with his brother Alonzo and Don Nuño
Gonzalez de Lara, son of the Count Gonzalo, to scour the country
about Arjona, Jaen, and Alcaudete. The Moors took refuge in their
strong places, whence they saw with aching hearts the desolation of
their country—olive plantations on fire, vineyards laid waste, groves
and orchards cut down, and all the other modes of ravage practiced in
these unsparing wars.
The king of Granada did not venture to take the field; and King
Fernando, meeting no enemy to contend with, while ravaging the
lands of Alcaudete, detached a part of his force under Don Rodrigo
Fernandez de Castro, a son of the brave Alvar Perez lately deceased,
and he associated with him Nuño Gonzalez, with orders to besiege
Arjona. This was a place dear to Aben Alhamar, the King of Granada,
being his native place, where he had first tasted the sweets of
power. Hence he was commonly called the king of Arjona.
The people of the place, though they had quailed before King
Fernando, despised his officers and set them at defiance. The king
himself, however, made his appearance on the following day with the
remainder of his forces, whereupon Arjona capitulated.
While his troops were reposing from their fatigues, the king made
some further ravages, and reduced several small towns to obedience.
He then sent his brother Don Alfonso with sufficient forces to
carry fire and sword into the Vega of Granada. In the mean time he
returned to Andujar to the Queen Juana. He merely came, say the
old chroniclers, for the purpose of conducting her to Cordova;
fulfilling, always, his duty as a cavalier, without neglecting that
of a king.
The moment he had left her in her palace at Cordova, he hastened
back to join his brother in harassing the territories of Granada. He
came in time; for Aben Alhamar, enraged at seeing the destruction of
the Vega, made such a vigorous sally that had Prince Alfonso been
alone in command, he might have received a second lesson still more
disastrous than the first. The presence of the king, however, put new
spirits and valor into the troops: the Moors were driven back to the
city, and the Christians pursued them to the very gates. As the king
had not sufficient forces with him to attempt the capture of this
place, he contented himself with the mischief he had done, and, with
some more which he subsequently effected, he returned to Cordova to
let his troops rest from their fatigues.
While the king was in this city a messenger arrived from his mother,
the Queen Berenguela, informing him of her intention of coming to
pay him a visit. A long time had elapsed since they had seen each
other, and her extreme age rendered her anxious to embrace her son.
The king, to prevent her from taking so long a journey, set off to
meet her, taking with him his Queen Juana. The meeting took place in
Pezuelo near Burgos,[81] and was affecting on both sides, for never
did son and mother love and honor each other more truly. In this
interview, the queen represented her age and increasing weakness,
and her incapacity to cope with the fatigues of public affairs, of
which she had always shared the burden with the king; she therefore
signified her wish to retire to her convent, to pass the remnant of
her days in holy repose. King Fernando, who had ever found in his
mother his ablest counselor and best support, entreated her not to
leave his side in these arduous times, when the King of Granada on
one side, and the King of Seville on the other, threatened to put
all his courage and resources to the trial. A long and earnest, yet
tender and affectionate, conversation succeeded between them, which
resulted in the queen-mother’s yielding to his solicitations. The
illustrious son and mother remained together six weeks, enjoying each
other’s society, after which they separated—the king and queen for
the frontier, and the queen-mother for Toledo. They were never to
behold each other again upon earth, for the king never returned to
Castile.
[81] Some chronicles, through mistake, make it Pezuelo near
Ciudal Real, in the mountains on the confines of Granada.
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