Mondego River to the south. It fell to Fernando’s troops
on 25 July 1058. Nevertheless, clearing the Mondego
valley and plain of Muslims proved to be arduous. The
key position was occupied by the hilltop fortress city
of Coimbra, seventy kilometers southwest of Viseu.
Not until 25 July 1064, after a six-month siege, did that
city surrender to the Leonese. When it did, the northern
two-fi fths of modem Portugal had been reclaimed from
the Muslims and could be reorganized as a possession
of León-Castile.
More directly to the south of Fernando and Sancho’s
realm lay the t.ˉa ’ifa of Toledo. It may have been a
tributary as early as 1058, for in that year the last known
Mozarabic bishop of Toledo was consecrated in León,
presumably because of León’s tributary status. Never-
theless, in 1062 Fernando’s army invaded that t.ˉa’ifa
took Talamanca, north of Madrid; and laid siege to
Alcalá. The Muslim king, Al-Ma’mu ̄ n, agreed to an-
nual parias (tribute payments) to secure Fernando’s
withdrawal. During the following year Fernando struck
deep into Muslim Andalucia, ravaging the lands of the
t.ˉa’ifa of Seville and Badajoz. If those two realms had not
already pledged the payment of parias, they certainly
began to do so at this time.
Prior to his southern campaigns Fernando had moved
against the great t.ˉa ’ifa of Zaragoza on the Middle
Ebro River. The chronology is not clear, but probably
in about 1060 he seized the territories on the upper Du-
ero with their strongholds at San Esteban de Gormaz,
Berlanga, and Vadorrey. He also took control of the
rolling country to the south of the river about Santiuste,
Huermeces, and Santamara. Most likely Zaragoza paid
parias from this time, but in 1064 that kingdom broke off
payments. The Leonese response involved a victorious
campaign that carried all the way to the plains around
Valencia on the Mediterranean. That Muslim kingdom
had joined with Zaragoza in the attack on the Leonese
positions on the upper Duero. It seems to have been
turned over to Fernando’s ally and tributary, Al-Ma’mu ̄ n
of Toledo, but Zaragoza itself once again came under
Leonese suzerainty.
Fernando now had reached both the apogee of his
reign and the end of it. He died on 27 December, 1065,
and was buried in the Church of St. Isidore in León.
His wife, Sancha, lived until 27 November 1067. On
the death of Fernando, the kingdom was divided among
his three sons. The oldest, Sancho II (r. 1065—1072),
received Castile and the tribute payments of Navarre
and Seville.
See also Isidore of Seville, Saint
Further Reading
O’Callaghan, J.F. A History of Medieval Spain. Ithaca, NY,
1975.
Jackson, G. The Making of Medieval Spain. New York, 1972.
Mackay, A. Spain in the Middle Ages. New York, 1977.
Reilly, B.F. The Kingdom of León-Castilla under King Alfonso
VI. Princeton, 1988.
——. The Kingdom of León-Castilla under Queen Urraca.
Princeton, 1982.
Bernard F. ReillyFERNANDO III, KING OF CASTILE
(1201–1252)
Fernando, king of Castile (1217–1252) and León
(1230–1252), was the son of Alfonso IX of León and
Berenguela, the daughter of Alfonso VII of Castile. He
was born in June or July 1201. After his parents sepa-
rated in 1204, because of consangunity, he was reared in
his father’s court. His mother, summoned him to Castile
following the sudden death of her brother, Enrique I (r.
1214–1217). Though she was acknowledged as queen
of Castile, she bowed to the wishes of the Castilians
assembled at Valladolid and transferred her rights to the
throne to her son, and Fernando III was then proclaimed
king. When Alfonso IX discovered what had happened,
he invaded Castile with the intention of uniting it to the
Leonese crown, thereby restoring the unity of the two
realms, separated since 1157. Finding little support for
his cause, he retreated to León at the end of the summer
and recognized Fernando as king of Castile in August- Father and son pledged to live peacefully with
one another and to act in concert against the Moors.
Following his mother’s counsel, Fernando III married
Beatrice, daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor, Philip
of Swabia and granddaughter of Frederick Barbarossa,
at Burgos in 1219. As a consequence, their fi rstborn
child, Alfonso X, was later able to put forward claims
to the imperial throne.
As the Almohad empire that dominated Morocco and
Muslim Spain began to disintegrate, Fernando directed
his energy to the Reconquest. Seizing Quesada in 1224,
he also accepted the vassalage of al-Bayasi, the ruler
of Baeza, and his brother, Abú Zayd of Valencia, who
hoped, with Castilian help, to secure their independence
of the Almohads. Al-Bayasi collaborated with Fernando
in his campaigns against Jaén and Granada in the sum-
mer of 1225, and his fellow Muslims, disgusted by his
submissive attitude, murdered him the next year. Soon
afterward the Moors of Spain threw off the last vestiges
of Almohad authority, but as a result Muslim unity
dissolved, thereby giving advantage to the Christian
rulers.
While Fernando vainly attempted to besiege Jaén,
his father captured Mérida and Badajoz. His death
soon afterward, in September 1230, radically altered
Fernando’s fortunes. Although Alfonso IX had never
formally determined the succession to the Leonese
throne, Fernando claimed it at once and moved swiftly
FERNANDO III, KING OF CASTILE