The reign of Alfonso X., whose well-known title EL Sabio, The Learned, would have rendered him illustrious even in a more intelligent and a less warlike age, is a shining landmark amidst the intellectual desolation of the thirteenth century. His education, his associations, his tastes, and his habits had preserved him, in a great degree, from the contaminating and degrading influences which warped the intellect and perverted the impulses of the greatest statesmen and warriors of the time. Excelling in every art save that of war, which, unfortunately for him, was at that epoch the only title to popular respect and honorable distinction, his career presents a remarkable contrast to that of his father, St. Ferdinand, whose acquirements were confined to the military profession, whose life was an incessant struggle with the infidel, and whose devotion to the interests of the Church has been rewarded by his exaltation to the more than regal dignity of intercessor for the prostrate suppliant at the Throne of God. The age of ignorance in which the lot of Alfonso X. was cast could not appreciate or comprehend the necessity for, or the advantages of, literary or scientific attainments. The ecclesiastic did the thinking for the multitude. His knowledge seldom extended beyond the contents of his breviary. In his narrow mind association with infidels was the blackest of crimes, only to be expiated by arduous penance and liberal contributions. The whole career of this prince disclosed his political incapacity and his disinclination to adapt his conduct to the circumstances which environed him. He received from his father the heritage of a great but unformed empire. Insulted by the nobles, distrusted by the multitude, maligned by the clergy, and despoiled by his sons, he died without the possession and almost without the semblance of royal power. His naturally pacific disposition brought upon him the censure of a nation whose traditions for centuries had been derived from crusade and conquest. His enmity to the Emir of Granada was never sufficiently intense to exclude from his society the Moslem philosophers, physicians, and astronomers who shared his friendship and enjoyed his bounty. The scowling priest eyed askance the swarthy faces and flowing robes of the infidel strangers, who, protected by royal authority, frequented without molestation the observatories of Cordova and the libraries of Seville and Toledo. In the minds of the superstitious ecclesiastics they were magicians, who, in league with evil spirits, performed in the secret recesses of the palace infernal rites and diabolical sacrifices. The intimacy of the King with these accomplished scholars was considered a reproach, an act to be condemned by every devout and zealous Christian. The orthodoxy of Alfonso received a final blow when he required the clergy, who monopolized the most profitable sources of revenue of the kingdom, to contribute to the support of the government and to the expenses incurred during the Moorish wars.
In all the literary productions of the reign of Alfonso X. is to be readily discerned the influence of his enlightened neighbors, the Moslems of Granada. His astronomical tables—a prodigy of scientific knowledge and accuracy, considering the era in which they were compiled—were the work of fifty astronomers, the majority of whom were Moors and Jews; the time occupied in their arrangement and calculation extended over several years, and their cost aroused the pharisaical indignation of the clergy, who saw the revenues of the crown diverted for sacrilegious purposes from the control of the orthodox to the profit of the infidel and the heretic. This monument of erudition, still regarded with wonder and respect by the learned, would alone have been sufficient to establish the fame of its royal promoter; but numerous other works of scarcely less importance survive to attest his patronage of letters. The Coronica General de España, composed by his own hand; the Cantigas, poems in honor of the Virgin; the Siete Partidas, a comprehensive code of laws which has been extensively used in the classification and compilation of subsequent systems of jurisprudence; the Del Tesoro, a book on the transmutation of metals,—all demonstrate the extent of his information, the tirelessness of his industry, and the fertility of his genius. Perhaps the greatest of his achievements was the legal adoption of a provincial dialect in public documents, which time and practice developed into the musical and sonorous Castilian language. His devotion to literature was only exceeded by the admiration he entertained for its professors. He endowed with rich estates many chairs in the University of Salamanca. He elevated judges eminent for legal attainments to aristocratic rank. Ever ready to recognize his obligations to his early instructors and his recent friends, he bestowed honor, wealth, distinction upon all scholars, irrespective of nationality or creed. The Moors were always the objects of his especial favor. To their inspiration he was indebted for the noble impulse and example which had first directed his attention to learning; through their teachings he had imbibed the maxims of justice and wisdom; from their labors he was to derive, in coming centuries, the greatest credit and most enduring glory of his reign. The Moorish financier was not infrequently intrusted with the collection and expenditure of the revenues; the Moorish physician was a prominent figure at the Castilian court, where even the luxurious prelate, abominating the meagre fare of the cloister, did not hesitate to intrust his sacred person to his care; the Moorish professor domiciled in the palaces of the aristocracy directed the education of the most illustrious of the Castilian youth. Well was it for King Alfonso that the Church had not yet attained that position of security and power which justified the exertion of force for the maintenance and extension of its rule. But even in the subordinate relation it sustained to the state, in comparison with the prestige attaching to military success, its influence was well to be dreaded. It was the intrigues of the clergy appealing to the hereditary and martial pride of the nobles and inflaming the discontent of the people that promoted the unworthy ambition of Don Sancho, thus weakening the regal authority, anticipating the succession, and degrading the dignity of the throne. The implacable spirit of religious hatred was not yet strong enough to send its victims to the stake, confiscate their property, and brand their names with infamy; but it was able to interfere successfully in political affairs, and to humiliate a sovereign whose chief offences were that he had patronized profane learning, lived in intimacy with infidels, and, worst of all, extorted from the Church a portion of its wealth for the defence of his kingdom and the preservation of public security.
The news of the death of Alfonso X. was received with every manifestation of sorrow and regret throughout the Moorish dominions. The Emirs of Granada and Morocco hastened to send embassies to his successor, Sancho el Bravo, to tender condolence and solicit the continuance of peace and national friendship. To the compliments and sympathy of the former he returned a courteous but ambiguous answer, but the envoys of the Emir of Morocco were insulted with a message of defiance. Justly incensed by this treatment, the Emir Abu-Yusuf prepared for war. A considerable body of troops under his son Yakub was despatched across the strait, and Xerez was besieged. The approach of a great Castilian army caused the retreat of the invaders, and a truce for three years was agreed upon, for which the African prince paid two million maravedis of gold.
The new king was the moral antipodes of his father. His title, El Bravo, gained in battle while prince, indicated his claim to the respect and admiration of his subjects. Ignorant, bigoted, and cruel, he represented in every respect the spirit and aspirations of the age in which he lived. His dominating impulse was the love of war. He drove from the court the Moorish savants whose relations with Alfonso X. had brought suspicion on his orthodoxy and scandal on his name. The clergy, partly on account of the aid they had contributed to the faction of Sancho, but principally because they alone, of the different orders of the state, possessed the requisite knowledge and ability, were intrusted with the collection of tribute and the management of the royal treasury. But while the King favored the ecclesiastic, he jealously guarded the privileges of the nobility and the prerogatives of the crown. The highest rewards were reserved for military prowess. The pursuits of literature were discouraged and neglected. The intellectual development of the nation, begun under such happy auspices by Alfonso X., was arrested, never again to be revived, and soon to be absolutely crushed by theological intolerance and inquisitorial tyranny.
The enterprising genius of Sancho, occupied by internal disturbances, was not exerted against his African enemy until seven years had elapsed after the signing of the truce. Then a quarrel between Yusuf-Abu-Yakub and Mohammed II., again the ally of Castile, afforded a pretext for interference. The city of Tarifa, inferior only in strategical importance to Algeziras and Gibraltar, was taken from the Africans. Its defences were repaired, and it was garrisoned by a strong force commanded by Alfonso Perez de Guzman, a soldier of fortune, who had amassed great wealth in the service of the Emir of Morocco, and to whom the modern princely house of Medina-Sidonia owes its origin and much of its renown. A year afterwards the Infante Don Juan, brother of the King, after an unsuccessful attempt to seize the throne, fled to the court of the Emir of Morocco. Received with honor and intrusted with a force of five thousand African cavalry, he undertook to reduce Tarifa. The governor treated with defiance the demand of surrender. His son, a youth of tender years, had been captured by the enemy, and, with the expectation that paternal tenderness would prove stronger than loyalty to his country, the Infante sent word to the Castilian commander that unless he immediately evacuated the city the boy’s life would be sacrificed. The intrepid governor, in reply, cast a sword from the battlements; the unfortunate youth was decapitated, and his head shot into the town from a catapult. This inhuman action committed by a Christian prince, which indicates the barbarous character of the warfare pursued in those times, was as unwise as it was unpardonable; far from being intimidated, the garrison was impelled by horror and resentment to resist more vigorously, and the siege was soon raised by the approach of an army of Castilians and Moors.
The precarious alliance between Christian and Moslem, whose conditions were almost always unfavorable to the latter, not long afterwards sustained another rupture. Involved in a serious controversy with the nobles, who, rendered more arrogant by the increased importance they had acquired in the beginning of the present reign, menaced the security of the throne, Sancho, unable to protect his frontiers, saw them desolated with impunity by the cavalry of Mohammed, who had taken advantage of the embarrassment of his enemy to again inaugurate hostilities. Appeasing by timely concessions the discontent of his vassals, the King of Castile marched into Granada; stormed Quesada and Alcaudete, whose inhabitants he massacred without pity; spread devastation over the surrounding country, and, with a long train of captives and much booty, returned to his dominions. This exploit was the final one of his career. Consumed by a lingering and painful disease, he died, leaving to his infant heir an inheritance of domestic trouble and an unstable throne, which even monarchs of mature age and great experience had found it a difficult task to defend.
The minority of an infant prince, the difficulties of a disputed regency, the feuds of a jealous aristocracy, the intrigues of rival pretenders, and the murmurs of a discontented populace—always the victims of the quarrels, the triumphs, or the misfortunes of their superiors—afforded a tempting opportunity to the Emir of Granada, of which he was not slow to take advantage. His preparations completed, he first recaptured the towns lost in the last expedition, and retaliated on the unfortunate garrisons the treatment which his own subjects had received.
Flushed with success, he overran almost the whole of Andalusia, burnt the suburbs of many cities, stormed the castle of Belmar, and threatened Jaen and Tarifa. The unprofitable experience of the Emir of Morocco with his dependencies in Spain induced him to offer to Mohammed the fortress of Algeziras, for which he received a hundred thousand mithcals of gold.
Mohammed II. did not long survive his last and greatest foray. He is said to have died while in the performance of his devotions; his reign of thirty years is one of the most important of the time, and his kingdom, consolidated alike by his victories and the reverses sustained by his neighbors, who by tens of thousands settled in his dominions, descended to his son Mohammed III., a prince whose character and accomplishments were not inferior to his distinguished lineage. His administration—a series of disasters, conspiracies, and assassinations—he made illustrious by his love of erudition, his encouragement of the arts, and the embellishment of his capital. His industry was so great that he prolonged far into the night the unfinished business of the day. He displayed great vigor in crushing the rebellious spirit of the wali of Guadix, who refused to recognize his authority. By the capture of Ceuta he obtained a great treasure, which he worthily expended in the improvement of his kingdom. Among the buildings constructed by its aid were numbered the Great Mosque and the principal public bath of the city. The mosque, upon whose site now stands the cathedral of Granada, was famous for its magnificent columns of marble and jasper, its ornamentation of fretted silver, and its brilliant and intricate mosaics. An additional tax for the support of the bath, which scarcely yielded to the mosque in expense of materials and beauty of design, was levied upon the Jews and Christians, who were thus compelled to contribute to the revenues of an institution connected with the worship of their infidel masters, and one to which the latter sect had always exhibited a decided and unconquerable aversion.
In 1305, Suleyman-Ibn-Rabich, wali of Almeria, instigated by the Aragonese, aspired to independence. Seized before his plans were matured, he escaped with difficulty to the court of Barcelona. An understanding having been perfected between the Kings of Castile and Aragon, simultaneous attacks were made upon the Moorish dominions. A powerful Aragonese fleet and army appeared before Almeria and invested it by land and sea. At the same time the forces of Castile laid siege to Algeziras, which Mohammed endeavored to relieve, but was prevented by a succession of destructive tempests and floods.