In an endeavor to adjust matters Alfonso summoned a general convocation, which the aggrieved nobles, in an attitude of open affront, attended fully armed while their sovereign wore only civilian dress. At this meeting the monarch ceded still further privileges; but, pursuing their advantage, they finally came out in open rebellion and, gathering their army, marched away from Castile to the kingdom of Granada, burning and plundering as they went. Meanwhile Alfonso, by means of his eldest son and heir, Fernando de la Cerda, still endeavored to negotiate with them.
In spite of all these internal troubles the crown of the Holy Roman Empire still held the uppermost place in the mind of the monarch and it was just at this juncture that he succeeded in arranging for his above mentioned visit to France and left his oldest son, Fernando de la Cerda, to govern in his stead. The latter altho only a boy of twenty years was already showing great ability as his father’s representative, when suddenly he died. Fate seemed determined that not one bright lingering hope should be permitted to relieve Alfonso’s long, unhappy reign.
This unfortunate death was the cause of additional troubles. Don Sancho, Alfonso’s second son, immediately took up the reins of government where his brother had let them fall. War having been declared on the Moors, no time was to be lost. Alfonso returned to find his son and heir dead, his father-in-law, Don Jaime,—that valiant warrior who had now become his devoted friend—just killed by the unbelievers, and his second son, Sancho, self-established as heir-apparent. Altho this was contrary to what the king himself had ordered in Las Siete Partidas,[14] he confirmed Sancho as his successor, whereas the crown should have gone to Fernando’s eldest son. This brought more trouble. Queen Violante left him and sought refuge with her brother, Pedro III of Aragon, in order to defend the rights of her grandsons. The wife of the deceased prince hastened to her father, king of France, and war was about to be declared between the two kingdoms, when Rome interfered. Violante returned to her lord upon receiving his promise to cede the kingdom of Jaén to his grandson; but this angered Don Sancho, who rebelled against his father. Alfonso publicly disinherited his son, and incontinently set out to crush him. The other Infantes who had previously supported their brother now forsook him and came to the aid of their father. Sancho himself, with a kind of religious respect for his royal father, avoided battle and finally implored pardon. Such was the condition of affairs when, after an exceedingly turbulent reign of thirty-two years, Alfonso X died in Seville on the 4th of April, 1284.
During all these years Alfonso had cherished the fond hope of carrying on an ever broadening war against the Moors and finally of extending it into Africa and there dealing a death blow to the power of the Crescent. This purpose of his, like a will-o’-the-wisp, fluttered constantly just beyond his power of execution. He did succeed in carrying out minor conquests, but the ruler of Granada was always quick to take advantage of the civil strife in the kingdom to the north of him to recover his lost territory. The final net result was that Alfonso succeeded in adding to his crown the cities of Jerez de la Frontera, Medina-Sidonia, Lebrija, Niebla, Cádiz, and a few other towns of little importance.
From the foregoing it is easy to see that Alfonso was not a mere theorizing star-gazer. It is surprising that a man with his hands so full of terrestrial affairs could ever have found time to turn his eyes heavenward or could ever find the leisure and the quiet necessary for the careful editing of the lengthy works produced at his command.
In speaking of these works and discussing their chronological order Sr. Ramón Menendez Pidal says:
“La actividad literaria de la corte de Alfonso X—que se había iniciado con las Tablas Alfonsíes y el Septenario—había producido ya las obras legales, coronadas por las Partidas; había dado a luz la primera edición de las Cantigas y gran parte de los Libros Astronómicos. Posteriormente a esa actividad desarrollada en las materias astronómicas, jurídicas y poéticas, sólo a partir del año 1270, debemos colocar el comienzo de la actividad histórica antes no representada. Primero se trabaja en la Crónica General, y, después, se interrumpe la obra para impulsar la Grande Estoria; los redactores de esta, como luego indicaremos, conocieron noticias referentes a la historia de España que la Crónica General no aprovechó. En fin, después de la iniciación de las obras históricas se siguió trabajando en los Libros Astronómicos y en las Cantigas, y se empezaron las últimas obras del reinado, como el Lapidario y el Ajedrez.”[15]
Of the above I have been able to consult only those printed or reproduced in facsimile, which are the following:
Las Siete Partidas, (the best edition of which is the large three volume work published in 1807 by the Real Academia) is the result of Alfonso’s successful attempt to complete the work begun by his father in collecting, codifying and standardizing the various laws of the numerous regions of the kingdom, and it has been used as the basis of Spanish jurisprudence ever since. This work has proved of very great value because of the ample comments (made, it seems, either by the compilers or by Alfonso himself) on the laws contained and the customs referred to.
Las Cantigas is a collection of 422 lyric or narrative poems in the Gallego-portugués dialect, many of which were probably written by the monarch. Of these 353 are narrations of miracles attributed to the Blessed Virgin. The edition used in this study is that of the Real Academia, 1889, 2 Vols., 33 cm. edited with a critical introduction by Leopoldo Augusto de Cueto, Marqués de Valmar. A third volume of this work by J. Ribera treating of the music of Las Cantigas has just appeared.