Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

List of Illustrations

Colour Plates

Introduction The "Alfonsine Era"

Chapter One The Apprenticeship of a Great King

1. Birth and Ancestors

2. His Grandmother: Berenguela, the Great

3. Berenguela, Creator of the Castile-León Union

4. His Parents: Fernando and Beatriz

Chapter Two A Prince's Education

1. Teachers and Books

2. Curriculum Artium: The Liberal Arts

a. Trivio

b. His Teachers

c. Quadruuio: Continuity and Change

d. Beyond the Artes. The Goal of the Wise Man

3. Languages

4. The “Mirrors of Princes” in Alfonso’s Education

5. The Art of War

6. New Horizons

Chapter Three Alfonso King

1. Alfonso and the Conquest of Murcia and Seville

2. Marriage

3. Acclamation

4. Pending Business

5. The First Cortes: Seville 1252–1253

Chapter Four The Quest for the Imperial Crown

1. Background on the “Claim to the Empire”

2. The “Holy Roman-Germanic Empire.” The Idea of Europe

3. Pisan Support

4. Christina of Norway

Chapter Five Alfonso, King of the Romans

1. The Election

2. Alfonso’s Return to Seville: Culture and Diplomacy

3. The Overseas Crusade: From Salé to Niebla

4. General Uprising in the South

5. Waiting Period in the Imperial Election. New Directives in Papal Politics

6. The 1268 Jerez Cortes

7. Unexpected Family Complications

8. New International Perspectives

Chapter Six Gregory X and the End of Imperial Ambitions

1. Alfonso X and Gregory X

2. A New Candidate

3. The 1274 Cortes

4. Cultural Interlude: Excavation of King Wamba’s Tomb

5. The Journey to the Empire: Beaucaire

6. The Great Meeting

7. The Return

Chapter Seven Illness and Intellectual Pursuits

1. Illness and Literary Creation

2. The Testimony of the Cantigas

3. Marian Devotion and the Cantigas

4. Illness and the Miracle

5. Fitero in Navarra

6. Alfonso X in the Cantiga 235

a. The Illness at Ávila

b. Requena

7. Cultural Activities

Chapter Eight The Black Decade (1269–1279)

1. Montpellier

2. The Illness at Vitoria and Cantiga 209

3. The Miracle at Valladolid

4. Cantigas 279, 366, and 367

5. Alfonso’s Madness and the Setenario

6. Diagnosis

7. Cultural Parenthesis

Chapter Nine The Nobles’ Rebellion

1. A New Concept of Royal Power

2. Dissidence

3. Unexpected Opposition

4. The Promoters of the Conspiracy

5. New Perspectives

6. Murcian Sojourn

7. On the Road to Castile. The Showdown with the Rebels

8. The 1272 Cortes. Confrontation

Chapter Ten Desnaturación

1. Alfonso’s Reaction: The “Justice-Seeking Letters”

2. “Assemblies” at Almagro and Ávila

3. Alfonso Writes to his Son

4. Agreement in Seville

5. The North African Moors in the Peninsula

6. Don Sancho’s Intervention

Chapter Eleven The Problems of Succession

1. The Dilemma

2. Alfonso Changes the Rules

3. Civil War in Navarra

4. Mysterious Executions

5. New Marinid Invasion

Chapter Twelve Don Sancho is Declared Successor

1. The Burgos and the Segovia Cortes

2. The Queen’s Flight

3. The Siege of Algeciras and the Return of the Queen

4. New Initiatives against the North African Moors

5. Don Çag de la Meleha

6. The Memoriale Secretum and International Politics

7. Negotiations with Philip III of France

8. The Campillo Treaty

Chapter Thirteen Deposition and Civil War

1. The Seville Cortes (1281)

2. The Conflict between Alfonso and Sancho Erupts

3. Don Sancho’s Rebellion

4. Deposition of Alfonso X

5. Causes of the Deposition

6. Alfonso Defends Himself

Chapter Fourteen Don Sancho Seeks the Consolidation of Power. The Curse

1. Political Propaganda and Change

2. Alfonso Reacts

3. Civil War

4. Don Sancho Cursed and Disinherited

5. The Rebellion Falters

6. The Pope’s Intervention

7. Attempts at Reconciliation

Chapter Fifteen The Last Wills of Alfonso X

1. First Last Will. The Great Surprise

2. Second Last Will

3. Cultural Concerns until the End

4. Alfonso Forgives Don Sancho. The End

5. Alfonso’s Portraits

Conclusion In Praise of Knowledge

Bibliography

Index of Names