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46-470: Ferdinand III (Spanish: Fernando ; 1199/1201 – 30 May 1252), called the Saint ( el Santo ), was King of Castile from 1217 and King of León from 1230 as well as King of Galicia from 1231. He was the son of Alfonso IX of León and Berenguela of Castile . Through his second marriage he was also Count of Aumale . Ferdinand III was one of the most successful kings of Castile, securing not only

92-702: A major part in the Reconquista up until then, Ferdinand founded houses for friars of the Dominican , Franciscan , Trinitarian , and Mercedarian Orders throughout Andalusia, thus determining the future religious character of that region. Ferdinand has also been credited with sustaining the convivencia in Andalusia. He himself joined the Third Order of St. Francis , and is honored in that Order. He took care not to overburden his subjects with taxation, fearing, as he said,

138-533: A newly elevated kingdom of Galicia. Alfonso had first participated with Sancho in dividing Garcia's kingdom between them in 1071, only to lose his own to Sancho in 1072. Happily for Alfonso, Sancho, who was still childless, was almost immediately assassinated, creating opportunities for his brothers to return and attempt to reclaim their father's kingdoms. As it happened, this only worked out for Alfonso, who captured and imprisoned Garcia, taking all three kingdoms under Alfonso's control. Alfonso also seems to have adopted

184-611: A separate kingdom for Garcia . But it did not go well. In 1071, Garcia's kingdom of Galicia was attacked, conquered, and divided between his brothers, and in 1072, Alfonso's kingdom of León was attacked and conquered by Sancho. Sancho did not enjoy his conquests long, however, as in that same year, Sancho was assassinated. He died without children. the Valiant Ferdinand had ruled León and Castile, and on his death attempted to divide his kingdoms between his sons, with Sancho receiving Castile, Alfonso receiving León, and Garcia receiving

230-552: A series of raids on al-Andalus, renewed almost every year. There were no great battle encounters – Ibn Hud's makeshift Andalusian army was destroyed early on, while attempting to stop the Leonese at Alange in 1230. The Christian armies romped through the south virtually unopposed in the field. Individual Andalusian cities were left to resist or negotiate their capitulation by themselves, with little or no prospect of rescue from Morocco or anywhere else. The twenty years from 1228 to 1248 saw

276-508: A succession crisis in the Kingdom of Portugal when there was no obvious heir to the throne, Philip (a candidate in his own right) invaded and was made king that same year. Through his marriage to Mary I of England in 1554, Philip was nominal King of England until her death, but he never exercised any power there. A revolt against Philip in Portugal led to Portugal's regaining its independence in

322-530: A tributary arrangement from Granada in 1238). Ferdinand annexed some of his conquests directly into the Crown of Castile , and others were initially received and organized as vassal states under Muslim governors (e.g. Alicante, Niebla, Murcia), although they too were eventually permanently occupied and absorbed into Castile before the end of the century (Niebla in 1262, Murcia in 1264, Alicante in 1266). Outside of these vassal states, Christian rule could be heavy-handed on

368-618: A yearly stipend of 30,000 maravedíes to each of his half-sisters and the lordship of certain castles. After the renunciation, Sancha retired to the Cistercian monastery of Santa María in Villabuena , in El Bierzo , which had been founded by her mother, with her father's blessing. Sancha died there before 1243, when the Archbishop of Toledo, Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada , mentions in his history of

414-507: Is also the patron of the Spanish Army 's Corps of Engineers, and engineers generally. Since the establishment in 1819 of the Diocese of San Cristóbal de La Laguna , also called "Diocese of Tenerife" ( Canary Islands ), Saint Ferdinand is the co-patron of the diocese and of its Cathedral pursuant to the papal bull issued by Pope Pius VII . This is because La Laguna is a suffragan diocese of

460-560: The Archdiocese of Seville whose capital city has Saint Ferdinand as one of its co-patrons, together with the Virgen de los Reyes . Saint Ferdinand is also the patron of the University of La Laguna , since this institution was founded under the name of Universidad Literaria de San Fernando (Literary University of Saint Ferdinand). In 1219, Ferdinand married Elisabeth of Swabia (1203–1235). She

506-628: The Knights , the Church, and the nobility, whom he endowed with great latifundia . 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 . The capture of Córdoba was the result of a well-planned and executed process whereby parts of the city (the Ajarquía) first fell to the independent almogavars of

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552-726: The Portuguese Restoration War , from 1640-1668. The Crown of Castile existed in its own right within the Spanish crown and with its own law until the arrival of the Bourbon dynasty after the War of Spanish Succession . Sancha, heiress of Le%C3%B3n Sancha of León (1191/2  – before 1243) was briefly suo jure Queen of León , reigning alongside her younger sister, Dulce . The eldest child and daughter of Alfonso IX of León by his first wife, Teresa of Portugal , Sancha

598-512: The Sierra Morena to the north, which Ferdinand had not at the time subjugated. Only in 1236 did Ferdinand arrive with a royal army to take the Medina, the religious and administrative centre of the city. 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 to

644-547: The crown of Guadalquivir river valley in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, establishing the boundaries of the Castilian state for the next two centuries. New territories included important cities such as Baeza , Úbeda , Jaén , Córdoba and Seville , that were subject of Repartimiento, given a new general charter and repopulated in the following years. Ferdinand was canonized in 1671 by Pope Clement X . Places such as

690-662: The Almohad Caliphate, however, remained unresolved. In 1228, a new Almohad pretender, Idris al-Ma'mun , decided to abandon Spain, and left with the last remnant of the Almohad forces for Morocco. Al-Andalus was left fragmented in the hands of local strongmen, only loosely led by Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Hud al-Judhami . Seeing the opportunity, the Christian kings of the north – Ferdinand III of Castile, Alfonso IX of León , James I of Aragon and Sancho II of Portugal – immediately launched

736-522: The Church. On 10 March 1241, Ferdinand established seven outposts to define the boundary of the province of Córdoba. On the domestic front, Ferdinand strengthened the University of Salamanca and erected the current Cathedral of Burgos . He was a patron of the newest movement in the Church, that of the mendicant Orders . Whereas the Benedictine monks , and then the Cistercians and Cluniacs , had taken

782-589: The Virgin of the Kings. Several places named San Fernando were founded across the Spanish Empire in his honor. His supposed likeliness, enthronement , sword and orb are depicted on the crest of Sevilla Fútbol Club . The symbol of his power as a king was his sword Lobera . Saint Ferdinand is the patron saint of Seville, Aranjuez , San Fernando de Henares , Maspalomas , Pivijay , and of several other localities. He

828-534: The annulment of their parents' marriage in 1195. Although in Castile it was customary for females to inherit, and Sancha's stepmother became queen, briefly, of Castile, in León female succession was barred, although her ancestor Urraca had been the first queen regnant of Western Europe. After the death of Sancha's brother (1214), Alfonso IX named his second son by his second wife, also Ferdinand , his heir, bestowing on him

874-469: The bulk of Almohad arms and men across the straits to Morocco to contest the succession with his rival there, leaving al-Andalus relatively undefended. Al-Adil's rebellious cousin, Abdullah al-Bayyasi (the Baezan ), appealed to Ferdinand III for military assistance against the usurper. In 1225, a Castilian army accompanied al-Bayyasi in a campaign, ravaging the regions of Jaén , vega de Granada and, before

920-1059: The cities of San Fernando, Pampanga and San Fernando, La Union ; the Diocese of Ilagan and the San Fernando de Dilao Church in Paco, Manila in the Philippines ; and in the United States, in California the City of San Fernando , the San Fernando Valley , and in Texas the Cathedral of San Fernando in San Antonio were named in his honor. The exact date of Ferdinand's birth is unclear. It has been proposed to have been as early as 1199 or even 1198, although more recent researchers commonly date Ferdinand's birth in

966-425: The court of her father, King Alfonso VIII of Castile . In 1217, her younger brother, Henry I , died and she succeeded him on the Castilian throne with Ferdinand as her heir, but she quickly surrendered it to her son. Alfonso of León considered himself tricked, and the young king had to begin his reign by a war against his father and a faction of the Castilian nobles. His and his mother's abilities proved too much for

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1012-663: The curse of one poor woman more than a whole army of Saracens. Ferdinand III had started out as a contested king of Castile. By the time of his death he had delivered to his son and heir, Alfonso X , a massively expanded kingdom. The boundaries of the new Castilian state established by Ferdinand III remained nearly unchanged until the late 15th century. His biographer, Sister María del Carmen Fernández de Castro Cabeza, A.C.J. , asserts that, on his deathbed, Ferdinand said to his son "you will be rich in land and in many good vassals, more than any other king in Christendom." Ferdinand's death

1058-726: The death of Alfonso VII in 1157. Early in his reign, Ferdinand had to deal with a rebellion of the House of Lara . Since the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 halted the advance of the Almohads in Spain, a series of truces had kept Castile and the Almohad dominions of al-Andalus more-or-less at peace. However, a crisis of succession in the Almohad Caliphate after the death of Yusuf II in 1224 gave Ferdinand III an opportunity for intervention. The Andalusian-based claimant, Abdallah al-Adil , began to ship

1104-707: The end of the year, had successfully installed al-Bayyasi in Córdoba . In payment, al-Bayyasi gave Ferdinand the strategic frontier strongholds of Baños de la Encina , Salvatierra (the old Order of Calatrava fortress near Ciudad Real ) and Capilla (the last of which had to be taken by siege). When al-Bayyasi was rejected and killed by a popular uprising in Córdoba shortly after, the Castilians remained in occupation of al-Bayyasi's holdings in Andújar , Baeza and Martos . The crisis in

1150-511: The famous 'pact of Alcaraz'), Arjona , Mula and Lorca in 1244, Cartagena in 1245, Jaén in 1246 , Alicante in 1248 and finally, on 22 December 1248, Ferdinand III entered as a conqueror in Seville , the greatest of Andalusian cities. At the end of this twenty-year onslaught, only a rump Andalusian state, the Emirate of Granada , remained unconquered (and even so, Ferdinand III managed to extract

1196-686: The founder of the Trastámara dynasty was installed after victory in the Castilian Civil War . Isabella's husband Ferdinand , ruled with her as co-monarch of Castile , while on his ascension to the Crown of Aragon , she ruled as co-monarch of Aragon. On Isabella's death, as she was succeeded by their daughter Joanna I and her husband Philip I . Ferdinand, no longer king, then left the Castile and returned to Aragon. But after her husband Philip's death in 1506, Joanna proved unable to rule, and Ferdinand

1242-417: The inheritance for himself. At length, an agreement was reached, negotiated primarily between their mothers, Berengaria and Teresa. The resulting treaty of Benavente was signed on 11 December 1230, by which Ferdinand received the Kingdom of León , in return for a substantial compensation in cash and lands for his half-sisters, Sancha and Dulce. Ferdinand thus became the first sovereign of both kingdoms since

1288-409: The king of Leon and his Castilian allies. Berengaria continued to be a key influence on Ferdinand, following her advice in prosecuting wars and even in the choice of a wife, Elisabeth of Swabia . When Ferdinand's father died in 1230, his will delivered the kingdom to his older daughters Sancha and Dulce , from his first marriage to Teresa of Portugal . But Ferdinand contested the will, and claimed

1334-529: The kingdom and ruling in another place, Alfonso attempted to make his eldest daughters his joint heirs. In the Treaty of Boronal concluded with Portugal in 1219, Alfonso expressly states that if he should die, Portugal should respect the agreement with his daughters. Alfonso also attempted to secure his eldest daughter's rights by marrying her to John of Brienne , the former King of Jerusalem , but his wife Berengaria blocked this action in order to advance her son. In

1380-822: The lands of the Crown of Castile (including the Americas), the Crown of Aragon, his Italian territories, and the Netherlands) and his younger brother Ferdinand , who inherited the rest. Charles died in 1564. His rule in the Netherlands was challenged by a powerful rebellion , leading to the establishment of the Dutch Republic in 1579 and the Eighty Years' War , which expanded to include multiple other wars, ending only with Spanish recognition of Dutch independence in 1648. In 1580, during

1426-546: The most massive advance in the reconquista yet. In this great sweep, most of the great old citadels of al-Andalus fell one by one. Ferdinand III took the lion's share of the spoils – Badajoz and Mérida (which had fallen to the Leonese), were promptly inherited by Ferdinand in 1230; then by his own effort, Cazorla in 1231, Úbeda in 1233, the old Umayyad capital of Córdoba in 1236, Niebla and Huelva in 1238, Écija and Lucena in 1240, Orihuela and Murcia in 1243 (by

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1472-466: The new Muslim subjects. The range of Castilian conquests also sometimes transgressed into the spheres of interest of other conquerors. Thus, along the way, Ferdinand III took care to carefully negotiate with the other Christian kings to avoid conflict, e.g. the treaty of Almizra (26 March 1244) which delineated the Murcian boundary with James I of Aragon . Ferdinand divided the conquered territories between

1518-629: The non-hereditary position of Holy Roman Emperor . Governing such a vast and disparate set of realms proved exceedingly difficult. In Castile, his rule was challenged in 1520-1522 by the broadly-based Revolt of the Comuneros , and in neighboring Aragon in 1519-23 by the Revolt of the Brotherhoods . Both were overcome by a combination of force and compromise. After a long reign Charles abdicated in 1556, dividing his lands between his son Philip II (who inherited

1564-451: The people of León, who had pledged for Ferdinand in 1206, refused to recognise his daughters, and they in turn ceded their rights to his kingdom to their half-brother on 11 December 1230. She was 38 years old at the time. This agreement, negotiated at Valencia de Don Juan by Berengaria and Theresa, with Sancha and Dulce present, is known as the "pact of the mothers" . The treaty was signed Benavente and in compensation Ferdinand promised

1610-530: The permanent union of the crowns of Castile and León, but also masterminding the most expansive southward territorial expansion campaign yet in the Guadalquivir Valley , in which Islamic rule was in disarray in the wake of the decline of the Almohad presence in the Iberian Peninsula. He was made a saint in 1671. By military and diplomatic efforts, Ferdinand greatly expanded the dominions of Castile by annexing

1656-581: The spring of 1224, John was on the Way of Saint James , passing through Alfonso's kingdom, when he decided to stop in Toledo in order to see his prospective bride. There the queen convinced him instead to marry her daughter, Berengaria , and on his return trip, at Burgos , he did, his wife and he being accompanied as far as Logroño by the king and former queen of Castile. After this fiasco, Alfonso declared Sancha and Dulce his heirs, but upon his death on 24 September 1230,

1702-546: The summer of 1201. Ferdinand was born at the Monastery of Valparaíso (Peleas de Arriba, in what is now the Province of Zamora ). As the son of Alfonso IX of León and his second wife Berengaria of Castile , Ferdinand descended from Alfonso VII of León and Castile on both sides; his paternal grandfather Ferdinand II of León and maternal great grandfather Sancho III of Castile were the sons of Alfonso VII between whom his kingdom

1748-464: The title infante (1216). In 1217, with the support of the aristocracy, Alfonso granted his daughters Sancha and Dulce the villages of Portela de San Juan, Burgo de Ribadavia and Allariz , to be ruled by them until their deaths, after which they would revert to the Crown. In that same year, Ferdinand's mother, Berengaria , inherited the Kingdom of Castile , but ceded it to her son, who was proclaimed king at Valladolid on 2 July. With his heir out of

1794-416: The title Emperor of All Spain, sometimes used by his father. As Alfonso was king of León as well as Castile, he passed both kingdoms to Urraca. An attempt to create a dynastic unity with neighboring Aragon by a marriage with its king, Alfonso VI of Aragon, spectacularly failed. Not only was the marriage childless, Alfonso actively waged war on his wife until his death in 1114. Urraca did seem to sometimes use

1840-527: The title Empress of All Spain. The following dynasts are descendants, in the male line, of Urraca's first husband, Raymond of Burgundy . His passion for his mistress led to her having 10 illegitimate children by him, one of whom, the future Henry II , deposed and executed Alfonso's son and successor, Peter . In 1366, Peter's conduct led to an uprising by his illegitimate half-brother Henry with support from France and Aragon. After three years, Henry triumphed in 1369, and personally executed Peter. Henry II,

1886-409: Was attributed to a dropsy he contracted in the winter of 1251. His death took place on 30 May 1252, and he was buried in the Cathedral of Seville by his son, Alfonso X. The funeral took place on 1 June 1252 and was officiated by Remondo, Bishop of Segovia, in the cathedral. In the city there were royal vassals, bishops, abbots and wealthy men of the kingdom, who had come to show their lament. His tomb

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1932-441: Was divided. Ferdinand had other royal ancestors from his paternal grandmother Urraca of Portugal and his maternal grandmother Eleanor of England a daughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine . The marriage of Ferdinand's parents was annulled by order of Pope Innocent III in 1204, due to consanguinity , but the legitimacy of the children was recognized. Berengaria then took their children, including Ferdinand, to

1978-463: Was inscribed in four languages: Arabic , Hebrew , Latin , and an early version of Castilian . He was canonized as Saint Ferdinand by Pope Clement X in 1671. Today, the incorrupt body of Saint Ferdinand can still be seen in the Cathedral of Seville, for he rests enclosed in a gold and crystal casket worthy of the king. His golden crown still encircles his head as he reclines beneath the statue of

2024-401: Was made co-heiress following the death of one of her younger brothers and the accession to the throne of Castile of the other. Sancha and her sister did not get to reign, as their stepmother succeeded in setting up her own son on the throne. Sancha was raised at the court of their father, but her younger sister Dulce and her brother Ferdinand were raised with their mother in Portugal after

2070-401: Was recalled, after which he governed Castile as her regent until his death in 1416. Charles also inherited the titles Lord of the Netherlands and Duke of Burgundy on his father's death in 1506, King of Aragon on the death of his maternal grandfather Ferdinand II in 1516, and Archduke of Austria on the death of his paternal grandfather Maximilian I in 1519. In 1519, he was also elected to

2116-467: Was the fourth daughter of Philip , Duke of Swabia, and Irene Angelina . Their children were: After he was widowed, he married Joan, Countess of Ponthieu , before August 1237. They had four sons and one daughter: King of Castile Ferdinand did not, however, pass both of his kingdoms on to Sancho but on his death gave instructions to divide the kingdoms among his sons, with Sancho receiving Castile, Alfonso receiving León, and Galicia elevated as

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